So, since FakeIPLPlayer copied Cynicalbanker's style (refer below posts for proof dated over a year ago), I've decided to stop making such references to people I work with. For more than one reasons. Apart from the fact that a lion kills its own dinner, this is also a country that reads and blogs a lot - so there's always room for holdup.
For once, I'm going to be a little serious, and write what I actually think about my job. Being in credit cards is very, very different from being in hard core banking - but that isn't to say this is any less a business. From what I've seen, there aren't many big fans of the business right now.Who'd want to dish out money on credit with a "trust"-ing period of six months when the world's coffers are going bust?
Basic issue number one. I do appreciate the value credit cards bring to a person's life in terms of automated accountancy and pushing your actual payments till later. What I do not understand is why people should not be asked to pay for that luxury. If I bring a comfort to your life, I would want to be paid for it. Credit cards is a business where the real revenue comes from the "revolvers", those who don't pay within the month and bear the crazy interest charge to pay up next month. If the customer doesn't pay up within six months, you write him off. In essence, the business runs on hope that the customer has just the right amount of financial burden to pay late, but he doesn't have so much burden that he will not pay at all. That makes no sense to me - it's almost like luring the customer into a trap that will make you money if he gets out of it, but will pull you both down under if it doesn't work out. Bottomline - credit cards should charge fees, in my opinion.
That brings me to basic issue number two. If today, I went to my business unit and suggested this idea, it would almost sound laughable. Innocuous, ridiculous, crazy. The infinite competition in this business has had issuers in the past few years falling one over the other trying to give the customer better offers in terms of more freebies, superb offers at particular stores, etc. The very suggestion of fee (as I realized in a recent market survey) gets shot down with less than 5% of respondents even feigning interest. Here's my take on why that happens - the customer, while intelligent, is also busy. He doesn't have the time to decode all the different offers competition is making him, calculate NPV and choose a fee paying product - which is why when he sees 10 free cards, and one card he must pay for - he naturally picks up the free stuff.
Which is why, a responsible businessman worth his salt should explain to the customer what he's getting into with zero pretence. Three months in this business and whatever little I've talked to customers has convinced me that it makes total sense to sit down with your customer (like a relationship manager) and explain to him why he's doing the right thing by using your card. Offers, rewards, product features, discounts, whatever. You've got to tell him.
Owning a credit card is almost like having a bank account. There are issues around reputation, reliability, responsibility and all of those hygiene factors. Add to that the prestige value and the superb experience a customer expects to get when he walks in with his credit card (apart from the actual utility). It's high time we started charging for that service, and it's high time we told the customer why.
PS: I just can't wait for the brickbats on this one :)
