Somewhere in the two years ordeal called the MBA course one of the profs of finance had lectured on the risk propensity of individuals. Clearly the formulas of finance hadnt been able to accomodate this human factor and hence came in concepts of credit scoring that showed your credit worthiness. And finally I have realised that my credit worthiness is a big zero coz no credit card issuer is willing to give me one. The irony is that in a day I get about 5 to 6 calls from companies but alas no one has delivered me with a card till now. In credit card sales terminology post the cold calls and the hot calls and the collection of documents stage the sales process never reaches the delivery or after sales service stage. Though in this era of money and near money instruments a debit card just serves fine, but alas the aviation industry never seems to be contended reducing your bank balance. They never trust debiting your bank balance when you are busy searching for the best deal to go back home. Moreover there is also the paranoid PVR where you would never be able to get tickets standing in a queue for even the worst of movies which have been rated one star by TOI on any weekend. And hence the credit card serves as the alternative which can buy a ticket without a queue to manage though they charge for the luxury of not making you stand in a queue.
So with these ends in mind I finally applied for a SBI Credit Card. The person who was making the cold call sounded desperate to acheive his monthly target and he said that there would be no hassles and he sent a person to fetch the numerous documents from me showing the greatest of efficiency. After the initial few calls that populated their customer details with all sorts of inane details about my existence, I finally got an assurance that I would be gettin my brand new lifetime free credit card in a week. Two weeks later I was yet to see my baby. An uncerimonious SMS message coveyed the bad news. It ran something like my application was rejected because of certain issues which were completely internal to the company and could not be shared with lesser mortals like me though they ended it with a positive looking statement which stated that the rejection was no way related to my credit stading.
Heartbroken at the rejection, I began searching for other options. After all the best way to forget a rejection (girl or otherwise) is to search for other alternatives. So there I was on the lookout again for some better options than SBI when I finally got a call out of the blue saying that the SBI application had been processed and they have dispatched the same.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months but there was no sign of any credit card. Then came a volley of hilarious calls from SBI giving me a DD of Rs. 30k that I had never asked for to be used for a month. Somone called up to ask if I had got my credit card. When I answered in the non-affirmative the person on the other side said that the credit card had been dispatched and was somewhere between Bangalore and Chennai. And then came the most hilarious part, a credit card statement when I was yet to receive my credit card. It was coupled with an insurance policy of a whooping Rs. 6 lakhs which the person selling had tried to cross sell with the credit card sighting IRDA regulations. Alas I knew more of insurance than him and hence his justifications did not get him enough moolah!!
But under the present circumstance am left with a credit card statement telling me how much to pay for a credit card that never came to me. I guess I was the lucky one whose case was in the exception region of the dumbell curve popularly called the Six Sigma concept that GE so well follows.
Finally I have realised that it is the hardest to get the first credit card, the latter simply keep flowing. So as I still hope to lay my hand on the SBI card that is somewhere in transit between Bangalore and Chennai for the last two months, do I have any volunteers who can pay my bill of Rs. 49 for the month of December 2006???
No comments:
Post a Comment