Credit Card v/s Debit Card

Recently, I went to eat dinner with a friend of mine to celebrate a long due party from his side. At the time of paying the bill, he took out his debit card and did the payment.

Once it was done, I asked him that why uses debit card and not a credit card. To this, his reply was that since debit card instantly debits money from the account, its easier to keep a check on the spending.

And this is the exact reason I personally don't use a debit card. First of all, personally I believe that holding a credit card does not make you a reckless spender and debit card stops it. If that is indeed the case, then someone has a shopping problem and needs medical help :D

According to me, there is no good reason to use a debit card over a credit card as a credit card is much better and here are the reasons for the same.

1. Since my account is instantly debited when using a debit card, one loses interest on that amount for not one but 2 months. The amount might seem to be small on the face of it but add all the amounts for a month and then calculate the loss. And for people who are thinking that how one loses 2 months interest, here's the maths. Suppose one spends on 29th of a month, the credit card statement will come by 15th of the next month and the payment needs to be done by 5th of the month after that. So, if one had used my debit card on 29th itself, the money is debited but credit card payment is done in the next 2 calender months.

2. Credit card gives more control in terms of security any day! God forbid, if someone loses debit card, then the account is under threat but credit card prevents one from that too.

3. Using credit card gives one reward points too which can be redeemed later on, which is not the case in a debit card.

4. And credit card allows one to spend much more than my account balance if the limit is quite high. This is really useful in case of emergencies and some bulk purchase if one needs to do.

So, personally I see no reason of using debit card apart from it being used to withdraw money from the ATM!

ICICI Bank Customer Service SUCKS!

I am an ICICI Bank Credit Card customer for more than 5 years now. I was issued a silver card back then and was upgraded to Gold Card 3 years back owing to my clear credit record. I am a Gold customer since then and have maintained the same clean record.

Last month, I forgot to make the payment on time (just slipped out of my mind) and made it 2 days late. On Friday, I received my bill on which I was slapped a Rs. 400 fine and some service tax on it, taking the total to Rs. 440 something. When I called the customer service, I was told that bank is not considering any reversal. I asked to speak to the manager and was told as he is busy with some other call, I cant speak to him. I told the customer support guy to atleast take my complaint which he did. I was given the assurance that I will hear from the bank about this by Saturday night.

Since I did not receive any reply, I called the helpline once more few minutes back and told my case. The phone agent told me that no complaint was lodged on Friday and no communication is pending from bank's side. I was shocked to say the least! The previous guy had blatantly lied to me. I told this person about fine reversal and he too told me the same about no reversal being possible. I told him, well in that case ICICI should cancel my card and I will clear the outstanding without paying the fine. Then I was told to hold the line.

After 3 to 4 minute of holding the line, I was informed that my reversal is accepted and a confirmation SMS will come to me within an hour. I also lodged the complaint against the person who bluffed me on my last call on Friday. Lets see what happens.

I think ICICI should take some lessons from their competitors in customer service.