Thanks for the advise TK . I was actually considering TD but I ll look deeper into PC Card. Please be a litle wary with Citibank .My experience tells that Citibank rips you somewhere down the line with its fineprint.
No I am in the habit of using only 1 credit card .BTW does it matter if we have a master card or visa ?? Are there any prefernces amongst stores ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fido.
Location: God's own country
Posted on: 25-10-06 15:31:00
Fido,
All credit cards (visa, master) are the same and are accepted everywhere credit cards are. I would avoid Amex. as these are not too frequently accepted except maybe at Costco.
Try to get a card which gives you 1 % rebate (PC mastercard/CIBC). All these should be no annual fee's ones.
It does not matter if you have one credit card or more than 1. I would suggest that you have atleast 2 or 3 as a precaution.
For example, Let us assume that you have a PC master card only and while in India you make an expensive purchase and this will reflect on the PC master card control centre. Since they know you to be in Canada, They may freeze the card for the transaction. Since you are in India, it may be expensive for you to call them to unfreeze it. In such situations, the second card or the 3 rd. card come handy.
TK A
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I am a Gents and not a Ladies.
Quite True . I would keep that in mind and a big THANK YOU !!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fido.
Quote:
Originally posted by Fido
No I am in the habit of using only 1 credit card .BTW does it matter if we have a master card or visa ?? Are there any prefernces amongst stores ?
I think for store owners MC is better.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Proud Indian Canadian
I keep one MC, 1 Visa and Amex. I pay my cards in full. PC MC is good one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Live and Let Live. Together we can make a difference.
DP JAIN, CPA, CGA, CPA (US), CA(I), LL.B.(I)
416-305-0080
(Loans, Mortgage, Tax, Accounting, Investments)
Quote:
Originally posted by tamilkuravan
I would avoid Amex. as these are not too frequently accepted except maybe at Costco.
TK A
I have avoided AMEX - but not because of Acceptance but just the way they report your Credit score to Bureau.
I'll try to explain to best of my ability, I was told by the expert some 4 years back - I dont question his knowledge on that.
No mater how much is your Upper limit - they always report that you have used 100% of your available credit. Now how does that mater - I dont know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mumbai Maazi Ladki ...
Location: Canada-Glorious and Free
Posted on: 25-10-06 20:23:27
Quote:
Originally posted by tamilkuravan
CD's
I own a particular master card.
I was having a balance of around $ 2000 to be paid.
I then took a promotional offer of 4.9 % per year to a tune of $5000 (Amount of SI per month to be around $21).
As soon as i took it, i paid back $2500. My understanding was that $2000 of the amount would have been taken to pay back my credit balance (Which was the $2000 outstanding) and the remaining of $500 was the min. monthly balance to the loan. I was schocked to see a Intertest of $87 for that month. So what those people have done is that they took my $2500 to pay off my loan and had subjected the outstanding credit amount of $2000 to an 18.5% interest rate. This is how these people cheat in the fine print to gain money.
So my advice to desi's is :
Donot take a promotional offer with a low rate of interest on the credit cards which you would normally use to buy stuff for credit. If you do then, all the payment that you do will be taken to pay off the loan leaving all the items that you bought for credit to be subject to a 18.5% interest rate.
Remedy :
So now i have applied to a citibank master card giving a promotional rate of 0.9% till oct.2007/ What ever balance transfer that i get, I will use it to pay my high interest credit card. I will never use the Citibank master card for any transaction but will only be paying the min. reqd. amount every month.
TK A
The fine print on a low interest promo from ANY card company is that any payment made will first be used to pay down the low interest balance. Any funds left over will go to pay off the higher interest balance.
So the mistake TK did was to take the offer from the same card that had an outstanding balance. This works if TK took this kind of offer from another card with zero balance to pay off one with higher interest.
BV
