Beware When Applying For Credit Cards

By Neil Farman on August 11th, 2007

Have you ever wondered what attracts so many people towards credit cards? What is it about these pieces of plastic that makes people fill out one credit card application after another?

Research suggests that at least part of the attraction is the number of seemingly fabulous rewards programs and all the special features offered by the biggest credit card providers of today. In this brave new world of the over crowded credit market, there is intense competition among credit card issuers for more and more customers. In order to get and keep your custom, lenders are now ready to do what it takes, to meet your needs and to satisfy the whims of potential clients.

However, the ground realities, especially after you have been hooked, are slightly different. Polls show that as much as 60% of current credit card holders are being cheated with regards to their offered credit card rewards. Although they may be spending immense amounts of money on the points reward credit card, they hardly ever get to see the rewards they were promised. It may seem incredible that respectable and apparently trustworthy credit card institutions can cheat you out of a few dollars of cashback.

For example, there are cases of prosperous businessmen, spending large amounts on frequent flyer credit cards in the hope of collecting enough points, eventually, to get a free ticket. However, they either never seem to get there, or have trouble in actually completing the claiming process, for one reason or another. More and more credit card companies are offering cashbacks of 5% or more, short term or for life.

Consumers are being enticed through points, rewards and low APRs, however, after years of responsible credit card use, they seem to be reaping none of the rewards they were promised. In a best case scenario, they have access to only a part of the promised facilities and offers.

With these practices of credit providers, credit consumers find themselves in a bit of a bind. The best credit providers are offering new credit card products that claim to be extremely promising and advantageous. But consumers are wary now about whether these are just more traps to hook their custom.

companies like Capital One offer additional features like a constantly updated ID Theft help service that protects you in the process of paying with their credit cards. It also helps the consumer to recover from the damage, if a fraud does actually happen. Normal credit card features such as balance transfers low Annual Percentage Rates, and cashbacks and rewards are there as well.

However, consumers are worried that the entire deal may turn out to be a fake. The very credibility of these credit providers is coming into question these days.

Will a high quality of service ever be assured? Will customers ever feel secure about using their credit card, knowing that they will definitely get what they were promised? We’ll just have to wait and see whether a truly honest credit card company emerges from this immense credit card market.

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