Credit Card - Overview

Credit cards can be broadly divided into two categories:

• Standard Credit Cards – Plain credit cards with basic features and no annual fees.
• Specialized Credit Cards – Credit cards are designed especially to cater specific needs of the cardholder. These cards offer various privileges on dining, fuel, travel, etc.

             However, credit cards can also be classified as follows:

• General Cards – Credit cards offer basic features and have relatively low annual fees. These cards are ideal for everyday usage.
• Reward Points Cards – Credit cards offer reward points to cardholders for every purchase. The more a cardholder spends the more reward points he/she earns. These reward points can be redeemed to get gift vouchers, coupons and more.
• Cash-back Credit Cards – Unlike reward credit cards which offer reward points, cash-back credit cards offer cash. On using a cash-back credit card a specific percentage of the cardholder’s expenditures are credited back to his/her account. The cumulative cash back earned is adjusted against the card account periodically.

A debit card allows you to withdraw money directly from your bank account deposits. A credit card, on the other hand, is similar to a short-term loan from the card issuer that allows you to make payments or withdraw cash. Rather than repaying this short-term loan on a per-use basis, all of your credit card spending are combined into a single bill at the end of the billing cycle.

You can know if you are eligible for a credit card by checking its eligibility criteria as mentioned on the bank’s website. You may also contact the customer service department of the credit card providers to ascertain your eligibility.

A credit limit is the maximum amount of credit extended to you on your credit card. Factors on which the credit limit of an applicant depends are his/her profile, the repayment capacity, CIBIL credit report, etc. However, to increase your credit limit, you can raise a request for the same with your provider. Upon raising the request your provider may ask for additional documents or may scrutinize your request based on factors such as credit score, financial status etc. If you are deemed eligible, your credit limit will be increased. Also, if you have paid your credit card balance on time, you may be eligible for an annual credit limit increase from your provider. 

Yes, credit card providers do charge cardholders with penalties if they are unable to pay the due amount on time. Cardholders are usually charged with an interest of 3-4% on their outstanding amount. The amount to be paid is calculated based on the formula:

(Number of days counted from the date of transaction made X  Entire outstanding amount X Interest rate per month X  12 months)/365.

Yes, you can use your credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM. However, you withdrawing cash using a credit card incurs additional charges which may range anywhere from 2.5 – 3.5%.

If you do not pay your total credit card bill by the due date, you will be charged finance charges on the outstanding balance. The interest charges for non-bill payments typically vary between 30 and 49% every year. In addition, failure to pay the total bill may result in the suspension of the interest-free period on new credit card transactions. Also, all new credit card purchases would incur interest until the bill is fully settled.

A credit card balance transfer is the transfer of one credit card’s outstanding amount to another. This is a tactic used by many lenders (banks) to entice clients to switch to another credit card. The balance transfer is done primarily to take advantage of low-interest rates and avoid any existing debts on credit cards. 

Yes, you can convert your credit card purchases into EMIs.