Dragging to HELL

This is purely on my own hard experience and is not to hurt any private concerns.
The blog is regarding the Credit Card.

While I was at my first job in Photon Infotech, I regularly used to get calls from the Credit Card Agents to avail one. At that age I don't have better idea of how it works. But truly, I have seen people around me suffering a lot with Credit Card. I was cautious and there was NO need of it at that point of time.

The Need of one for ME

I wanna book the tickets in Satyam cinemas online, and I hardly need a Credit Card to book one. On the same day evening I saw a HDFC Credit Card Agent standing outside my office space. While I came back from the Tea break, I went to the person and inquired about the eligibility and signed for one. (So here the main reason for me lies on booking the Movie Tickets Online). Even at that instant my friends suggested NOT to get one. But as usual I thought I can manage this easily. Also my only purpose was to book movie tickets from credit card and instantly transfer money from my debit account.

My Procastination (And for many...)

And this process went perfectly thrice. After that I got the sluggishness, that I have time to repay it within the month end. Then I used to pay my full credit back by the EOM on the following next 2 months. Then I deviated my initial purpose and started swiping the card as a shopping spree wherever possible, particular at the last week of the month. My credit amount started to arise gradually each month. I gave up, and started to pay only the Minimum Due. This is the place where I got struck really bad and most would do so. As I started to pay only the Minimum due from that month(Feb) my Credit was reduced just by Rs 50 to 100. But real bad thing is I still continued to use my Credit Card at month ends and almost I got addicted to it ( In the sense I think I always have a backup in the form of Credit Card at month ends).

Dragging to HELL

I was paying the Minimum Due still the October month and I never have seen my Credit going down and it had been developed to a huge amount. By the time(October) I realized that these guys were dragging me to HELL with this Minimum Due, I was paying nearly 1/4th of my salary as Minimum Due and I am almost lost. I started calculating my budgets and Credit Card History. I found myself paying only the interest amount as a form of Minimum Due and there was almost NIL amount getting reduced from my principal. I was awry of myself since I know I have been trapped into it. But I really haven't realized how the heck these guys make their calculations for the Minimum Due.

The Banker's Face

I decided to break this and I went directly to my nearest Bank Branch. I told them clearly I want to close this card right away. I am not in a position to pay even the Minimum Due for the(October) month. I am giving the same words the guy put on me :" Dear Sir, You are one of our best customers since you have a very good history. We understand your situation and let us give you a suggestion. As you haven't crossed One Year's time with Credit Card there is no option to close your card with Settlement plan. So, there is no compulsion you have to pay the Minimum due by this month. You can skip this month and you can pay it by next month and only the interest will be added" . I really got angry with his reply. I again told them clearly I don't want to pay any interest hereafter. I want to close this card and get out of it and no need of any suggestion from you guys. And the guy replied " You have good history of paying back. So there is no possibility of settlement plan. We can't close the card now. Only the defaulters were given with the Settlement plan. SO there is zero possibility of closing the card with settlement".

I missed the months payment. I haven't received any notice on the months start and saw my statement of the month with 3.5% of interest plus additional fine. I was fed up and lost the peace of mind. Also with that they started to call me daily and harass me to pay the amount that they say(8% of my Total Outstanding). I paid that amount and left with awry. Then from 25th of the month they started to call me and harass me again for the Minimum Due. They pulled me out and there I started to lose myself. I started to behave very sensual and reacted that until or unless you guys were not going to give me the settlement I am not going to pay the amount. SO they came with a settlement plan which is again huge(to pay 80% of my total outstanding).

The Real Calculations

I started questioning them, I want to know how much I have spent with this bloody hell card and and how much I have paid back. So referred some records and came back with the answer that I have spend about 32K in which I have already paid them 19.6K. So for this remaining 12.4K I have total outstanding of 29K. Now a collection department bank representative called and said they availed me a settlement of 24.6K. I told them I can pay only 20K and they said only 22.4K is the minimum possible amount for that month. The guy gave a commitment at that time(The place exactly where I was fooled).

The False Commitment

The guy told me to pay the minimum due for next two months so that I will be an one year old customer for them. SO at that time he would avail me a settlement plan of 15K, and he himself would do that and made sure that this was a commitment given by him. So I paid the minimum for the next following 2 months and I saw my Total Outstanding was growing from 29K to 35K even after the payment. The third month from there I called the guy(HDFC collection department representative) and he said he quit his job and went to Axis bank. The other Collection department representatives started calling me and harass me to pay the remaining amount. But the guy who gave an false commitment to me called one of my office colleague from the same cell number regarding the HDFC credit card payment. So I went directly to the HDFC collection department office and spoke to a lady(She claimed herself a manager). I briefed her how much I have fed up with this card and how I was fooled by a collection guy. She replied to me this way "How come you know that he is a HDFC guy, whom you spoke regarding your payment". I reacted this way. I right way came out of the discussion room and walked off.

The diplomatic way

A guy came out and told me that manager called me again. I told him I am not sure you are a HDFC guy and your manager is employed with HDFC. I went to my work again. As tit for tat whenever I used to get a call from HDFC collection department guy I told them right away I am not sure you are a HDFC guy. SO I could not speak to them and cut the calls. They guys got irritated and the manager called me stating I have to pay some amount immediately. I replied to her the same answer and cut the call. She ringed me again and told that I have been mislead by some HDFC guy. SO she told, bank would avail me a settlement plan of 27K.

Halfway Done

As I am already half done with this card. I told them whatever happened may be left. They came with a settlement plan of 26K at last. I bargained them. But again they repeated the same story of paying the Due for this month and they would give me some more deductions on settlement. But I have decided to close once for all and agreed with the settlement. And by now I have paid them 13K for last 4 months. SO still 4 months to go.


So the core is here. I would suggest NOT to go for Credit Card. Never avail one.
Everyone knows about the Credit Card and I am also a victim of this.