On Why You Shouldn't Own Too Many Credit Cards

Hi guys!

Caution : This is not the typical #Pink's entry (OOTDs, travel, make up, reviews or hauls), this is full of rants and curses, oh and it's highly opinionated (because i am me), so if you're not in the mood to hear (or read, really) someone's complaints and rants, skip it!

Been having quite a horrible day, mostly dealing with stupid credit card's customer service. You know i am quite a credit card evangelist, i like to use different banks' credit cards depending on the promotions that they are having to maximize the usage of those cards (and get the best deals out of them), but i should also tell you this : don't own too much of them.

It gets confusing! Like sometimes you'd forget to pay them for a day or two, and their late charges are a lot bigger than how much you actually spent-which SUCKS, happened to me TWICE with different cards and i terminated my accounts with them immediately, it's just so not worth it! One time, i punched in the wrong numbers on the amount of payment and it was short of IDR 13.000 and the next month the interest was IDR 300.000. WTF? And the the B*TCH of a customer service had the nerve to yell at me when i nicely asked about it, saying i haven't paid my millions worth of bill-therefore the hundreds of rupiahs of charges-all because she misread all the information displayed on her own effing computer. Stupid much? I hope she rots in hell as i write this. Oh yeah, i hold grudges for years.

Then you also might lose track of which card would be nearing their annual fees (i don't think there are a lot of countries which banks still charges annual fees! They're just stupid!) and you'd ended up having to pay a fortune for those stupid annual fees (just terminate them if they refuse to waive the annual fee, you don't need those stupid card anyway, lots of other banks are waiting for you with an open arms-and free annual fees).

Get rid of them!!!

I myself only own like, four credit cards (one that i pay for myself-with a lifetime free annual fees, one that's my parents' additional card, and two more from my hunny's additional cards) and i already don't use most of them (i only use one or two mostly) but that's already way too much! My hunny on the contrary, has like 10 or more, and like i said, that confuses him (and i) and we kept having to pay for stupid things (late charges, annual fees, etc). 

Okay, so maybe that did not happen that often (once or twice a year, but if you have my memory once a year is way too often anyway, i'd feel like the previous event happened just days ago WTF), but that's still super unnecessary and annoying okay! That in turn made me got so pissed off at him, because i've been telling him to cut off most of the credit cards, why would he needs so much anyway??? He only use like, three of them mostly anyway! And the ones that keeps in creating troubles for us are the ones that we don't really use anyway! How much stupider can you get???

Anyway, this particular credit card we were dealing with today, we used it for several installments without realizing next month would be the due date of the annual fee. Same thing (same bank) happened with my mum's card but somehow they waived the annual fee, so everything was peachy. Was hoping for the same thing for us, but no such luck. They told us to pay the annual fee (IDR 700.000 because my effing hunny had to have platinum cards for every effing bank) or pay off all of the remaining installments, including 3x200.000 (for every installments, yes we had three) penalties for cancelling the installments.

That would not be so bad, if not because two out of three installments will actually be finished NEXT MONTH (so they're making us pay penalties even though we'll PAY the installments fully and within time limit WTF), when the annual fee's due. WTF. The CS didn't offer any other alternatives, instead she actually challenged us to pay off all of the installments+penalties (that's up to IDR 8.000.000) like we couldn't afford to do it, so i did. Within a few minutes. And then i demanded hunny to call her back and tell her to terminate both of our cards NOW. Another CS answered and he begged us to continue using the credit card, just use a certain amount of the credit card and they'd waive the annual fee. AFTER we already paid the whole thing. WTF.

But being the kiasu that i am, that still sounds like a good idea (i mean, IDR 600.000 is not that little, i can get like two Zara dresses on sale okay! Or even book a hotel for a night in Bali! Yes, by this statement you should already guess that 1-i am obsessed with Zara and 2-we're planning to go to Bali next, sometime soon). But my hunny went on and said NO and insisted on terminating the cards-without consulting me! @#$%%^&*@))*^#$%@@@!!! Seriously, how can this guy even survive without me, eh??? I just can't understand how his brain (nor other guys') works!!! The CS was offering him his IDR 600.000 back (using 5mill within three months is nothing), and he declined? WTH WTF, what in the world's wrong with him????
 

And yes, of course i pulled a major wrath on him and made him call the stupid CS back, they've successfully reversed the effing termination but can't help him with the waiving annual fee thingy, he'd have to talk to the exact CS (thankfully he wrote down the CS' name for once!) to be able to talk about it because that particular CS was the one who offered that alternative. WTF. And we'd have to wait until tomorrow morning to do that. I have a sinking feeling the effing CS might refuse to give in after all of this stupidity. After all, hunny did say NO in the first place. WTF. 

Maybe you read this and get confused, why am i so worked up from such a small problem? Well, in my world that's the only major problem i face, so deal with it! (Sorry, PMS-ing BIG time) Plus this is not the first time this kind of things happened, i am sick and tired or stupid banks' customer services who keeps on changing their words (twisting and twirling every statements, offer or whatever), causing inconvenience to their customers, and also sick and tired of hunny doing stupid things. Trust me, if you're a guy you'd want to marry a smart woman. Coz there will be things where you SUCK at (in my hunny's case, it's apparent already) and only a smart lady can keep you out of the big black holes awaiting you in many opportunities. 

In short, i highly recommend you to keep you credit card collections to a minimum. Three of four would be more than enough (unless you're a super billionaire who use credit cards in the billions, in that case i guess you wouldn't mind paying stupid things like late charges? I know my sis doesn't. LOL). That way it's going to be easier for your (or your wife) to keep tracks of the dates, amounts to pay, etc. World would be such a better place for the both of you.

Try to get the ones with the most offers, and if possible, have different cards from your close friends and family members (so you can borrow each other's cards whenever a certain card's having a promotion, make sure you only do this with people you 100% trust and don't have a bad track record of paying back debts *LOL*).

I seriously wish i could care less about this kind of things, let him deal with his own mess. But being married means you cannot just ignore things like that. After all, his money is your money, right? (But your money is yours entirely, of course. I'd chop his hands off if he tries to touch a penny of mine LOLOLOL)

Oh, maybe from the title you'd expect me to go on about not being able to pay credit card interests? LOL. Sorry, if you're looking for that kind of drama (i am not that kind of shopaholic that swipes her card til it maxed and not being able to pay afterward, i'm a total opposite of that. I would never dream of using a credit card without having the exact funds in the first place. I only spend what i have, only prolonged having to pay for it by using a credit card!) the place is not here. We always pay our credit cards bills fully, i would never pay the minimum payment only and then having to pay the steep credit card interests, i think that's just STOOPIT!

Honestly i wrote this credit card debacle as an opening to another entry (a hotel review actually, i'm gonna have to write about it tomorrow then) but i got so carried away *LOL* as usual. And also as usual, i feel so much better after writing everything down. I realize how kiasu and very Asian i sound in this entry *LOL*, but i've never claimed that i am anything but that so... keep any negative comments to yourselves okay *yes, you're correct, i am no good with criticism, even more so around my period*. But if you have any similar encounters with credit cards, you're more than welcome to share your war stories here!

My love-hate with banks isn't limited to their credit card customer service, i hate their pushy sales people even more so (went into a yelling contest with one that tried to force me to agree to join their insurance program and then went on accusing me of being "poor" and didn't have money when i told her i wasn't interested WTF, f*** that b**h!!!), but since i am in the mood of bitching about their credit cards only, i', gonna save all that for another entry HAHA.

Now i'm off to watch Running Man and hopefully i will finally be able to stop being annoyed after that.

#Pink