best credit card around

[svenkateshsmart]

From when did this start happening in India? Is there is a central rating agency that is fully functional in India? Are all banks sending customer's financial information to this agency? And are banks now checking your credit score before issuing any sort of loan or credit?

Pardon my questions, but I am genuinely interested to know. I left India 4 years back and at that time, there was no such thing as a credit rating agency!! If the agency is functional now, I can only hope that it is an agency under RBI and not like TransUnion / Equifax / Experian of US!!

Hi,

Though this process does not affect every single person, but the card users, corporate employee, etc. are the main targets. I was at a time planning to close all my cards, when I was advised against the idea.

Some finance corps sanctions loans with 24 hours based on the number and credit balance in your credit cards.

Thatz a lot of questions for me to answer. I am sure you will get all of them answered by visiting Welcome to CIBIL

I'm still holding on to the cards, because I am contemplating on a car loan any time in the future. I had to go through hell when I applied for my home loan when I was 21, none of the banks were ready stating my age that I was below 25, except UBI. The manager and the entire branch were awesome, which really made my impression towards government banks the opposite! The manager is going to retire in a couple of years and I have high regards for him!

Cheers!

 

[NetFreak]

Personally, I would not take this approach for it may not be legal. A Tax Identification Number (TIN) is issued by US Federal government / IRS only when you are a legitimate alien (yes the US government calls non-Americans as aliens!) residing in US but are not eligible to apply for a Social Security Number (SSN).

I got TIN 3 years before I visited US. I did not have a US visa at that point and I got SSN after 7 years when I worked there on L1.

You need not be in US to get TIN or bank account. It is completely legal in US and in India.

Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)

This is from IRS website :

Examples of individuals who need ITINs include:

* Non-resident alien filing a U.S. tax return and not eligible for a SSN
* U.S. resident alien (based on days present in the United States) filing a U.S. tax return and not eligible for a SSN
* Dependent or spouse of a U.S. citizen/resident alien
* Dependent or spouse of a non-resident alien visa holder

Even I did the same thing when i landed in US, but, BoA will keep copies of your passport and visa. How would one provide a valid visa from India when you don't have one?

You do not need a visa to open a bank account.

You need :

1. Tax ID (E.g. PAN) of home country. This is to trace money laundering.
2. Minimum deposit of USD 1000 in form of Draft
3. Complete KYC package
4. Letter of reference from your bank in India

For more info, call International customer helpline of any major US Bank (and quite a few Credit Unions).

E.g.: International Personal Banking

 

[gobble]

"Service tax, as notified by the Government of India, is applicable on all fees, interest and other charges and is subject to change, as per relevant regulations of the Government of India"

Foreign currency transaction markup is 3.5%

quoting from http://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/newgen/cards/images/Reliance_MITC_Stmt_12_08.pdf

Every thing else can be disputed!

Thats what they told me when I enquired, but it looks more like 6% to me. Tomorrow is accounts day .. will know then

Cheers

 

[NetFreak]

From when did this start happening in India? Is there is a central rating agency that is fully functional in India? Are all banks sending customer's financial information to this agency? And are banks now checking your credit score before issuing any sort of loan or credit?

Pardon my questions, but I am genuinely interested to know. I left India 4 years back and at that time, there was no such thing as a credit rating agency!! If the agency is functional now, I can only hope that it is an agency under RBI and not like TransUnion / Equifax / Experian of US!!

Yes its relatively new, it started functioning in April 2001.

It is called CIBIL, you get get your report on :

Access Your CIBIL Credit Report

Almost anyone with a bank relationship has a CIBIL profile.


Regarding TransUnion / Equifax / Experian, they got license in 2007 and have opened shop in India.

Major change is, not they track utilities payments as well. So late payments to MTNL/Reliance Power/TATA power/Airtel would start impacting credit history from this financial year.

 

[Raghav]

Is there anyway to correct your CIBIL report. If a bank has a dispute with you and puts up your name as defaulter on CIBIL, can you dispute the same by putting facts before them.

Yes its relatively new, it started functioning in April 2001.

It is called CIBIL, you get get your report on :

Access Your CIBIL Credit Report

Almost anyone with a bank relationship has a CIBIL profile.


Regarding TransUnion / Equifax / Experian, they got license in 2007 and have opened shop in India.

Major change is, not they track utilities payments as well. So late payments to MTNL/Reliance Power/TATA power/Airtel would start impacting credit history from this financial year.

 

[BLASTO]

<<Off Topic>>

To me, life without credit card is peaceful.
I once held many cards and disposed off all of them.. :clapping:

Like somebody else commented above, there will be resistances when you are trying to close the cards. Please don't give a ****. Just close the cards if you desire so without heading to CC or others!!

Why will closing a credit card by paying the full dues cause a dent to your credit is beyond me. I suppose it is for someone who closes the card after defaulting by not paying the dues.

 

[NetFreak]

Yes, and CIBIL is obliged to correct it within 2 reporting cycles.

It is ALWAYS a good ides to check report 3 months prior to applying for a home loan. You can bargain for lower ROI if CIBIL report is good.

For other loans, difference is not that much, though in some cases it might be denied. Most common scenario is:

1. Some sales agent sells a card without disclosing all fees
2. Customer does not pay 300 - 1000 fees
3. It balloons to few thousands with interest late fees etc
4. Customer "settles" it for 2 - 3k.
5. Bank reports it as "write off" to CIBIL

Home/Loan/Car loan/Credit card gets declined for next 7 years. Since a write off stays on report for 7 years.

 

[gobble]

Is there anyway to correct your CIBIL report. If a bank has a dispute with you and puts up your name as defaulter on CIBIL, can you dispute the same by putting facts before them.

If you want to know the history of problems with credit rating agencies in the west get the book Database Nation I read it a few years back and it was quite interesting

Regards

 

[thekinge]

Thanks svenkateshsmart!

I had heard of Indian government trying to come up with a credit rating agency a long time ago, and CIBIL I think is that agency!

I think it is still in its infancy and as far as I can see, you should not have a problem getting a loan as long as you surety in the form of existing non-movable asset like property. In which case, I think closing credit cards should not cause problems!

But then, CIBIL has tied up with TransUnion which at least to me is not very good. I hated the credit rating agencies in US because they made it so bloody difficult to get a loan for new immigrants like (because I did not have a credit score to begin with) and then once I started using my credit card and my credit ratings improved, I was bombarded with credit card offers to the extent that I had to shred a whole lot of these offers every other day while I was in US!

I suppose CIBIL in India targets only the tax paying population simply because the rest of the population has no good means of being tracked!

Hi,

Though this process does not affect every single person, but the card users, corporate employee, etc. are the main targets. I was at a time planning to close all my cards, when I was advised against the idea.

Some finance corps sanctions loans with 24 hours based on the number and credit balance in your credit cards.

Thatz a lot of questions for me to answer. I am sure you will get all of them answered by visiting Welcome to CIBIL

I'm still holding on to the cards, because I am contemplating on a car loan any time in the future. I had to go through hell when I applied for my home loan when I was 21, none of the banks were ready stating my age that I was below 25, except UBI. The manager and the entire branch were awesome, which really made my impression towards government banks the opposite! The manager is going to retire in a couple of years and I have high regards for him!

Cheers!

 

[GeorgeO]

Yes, I agree fully. I now use only a debit card, but for overseas travel a card is definitely useful.

George

<<Off Topic>>

To me, life without credit card is peaceful.
I once held many cards and disposed off all of them.. :clapping:

Like somebody else commented above, there will be resistances when you are trying to close the cards. Please don't give a ****. Just close the cards if you desire so without heading to CC or others!!

Why will closing a credit card by paying the full dues cause a dent to your credit is beyond me. I suppose it is for someone who closes the card after defaulting by not paying the dues.

 

[gobble]

Thats what they told me when I enquired, but it looks more like 6% to me. Tomorrow is accounts day .. will know then

Cheers

I found a discrepancy in my dollar transactions. The dollar rate charged in not the one you might find on a popular site like XE - The World's Favorite Currency and Foreign Exchange Site. Rather it is a bank's retail dollar selling rate that is typically slightly higher than the days rate. For example on XE currency charts, the USD conversion rate on the 25th March was 45.41 but Citi charged 45.3, 26th was 45.50, but the rate applied to me on that day was 45.59, on the 27th 45.13 vs Citibank 45.61. So far so good. But on the 30th March USD rate was 44.87 but Citi rate applied is 45.51 - almost a rupee higher!

They also charge me about 0.19 to 0.20% extra over and above the 3.5% by mistake which was supposed to be an (internal Citi-Mastercard) association fee covered by the 3.5% - which I disputed verbally on a hour long call ( I made them do the spreadsheet math while on the phone ) and now they have promised to reverse in the next statement. Edit: I also had to make a special request to them to publish the dollar amount against each transaction on this months statement (which they did) - something they omitted in the last statement!!

Citi does not publish historical trending charts on dollar rate or even today's dollar selling rate so there is no way of knowing the exact amount you are going to be billed, esp since the transaction may actually be posted to Citi by the trader a few days later

HTH
cheers

 

[kwokwchoy]

I have a Citibank CC and well they're exchange rates are usually a rupee or so higher than xe.com.

But the service is pretty good, provided you pay on time i guess!

It also has a solid online section. I have yet to see any other bank rival its online services. As soon as I buy something on my CC, I can see that amount being reduced from my credit limit in real time.