Debt Relief Programs

Credit card has always been a subject of severe scrutiny and endless debate among intellectuals, courtesy their providers unpredictable behavior. Recently, when debit card liquidity model went bust during the recession, credit cards providers cited it as an excellent opportunity to bounce back in market and recapture the clientèle which they had lost to their debit card product peers. The chance was well taken and the risk-takers were rewarded aptly. Since these plastic credit tools lubricate the business transactions quite easily, RBI which is the apex banking body of the nation went on to award the authority to these providers who can now charge interest rates according to their wishes.

However, now with liquidity deficiency no more in picture, providers of the plastic money are feeling the heat. The reason, well people are slowly switching back to debit cards. Moreover, recently, the carte blanche given to private and foreign banks to charge interest rates on their credit card products invited severe flak from parliamentary standing committee on finance. The committee expressed its dissatisfaction over the fact that interest rates charged on plastic money are open-ended and are solely at the discretion of the banks and providing bodies. Private sector providers like ABN AMRO credit card and several others, charge anywhere in the range of 42-49 percent on annual basis. This massive interest rate burden coupled with rocketing inflation rate is actually adding up to the problems faced by normal human beings especially those who hail from salaried class.

In fact, in such times, people are turning to public sector banks or government-backed bodies for adequate credit solutions of all kinds. Also these business bodies are responding quite well to this demand surge. Knowing the significance of Online payment mode in today's time and time to come, government banks such as State Bank of India, Punjab National Banks and others are offering excellent credit card schemes to cater to the needs of prospective plastic money subscribers. SBI card(s) for instance, is(are) doing fantastic business.

But the private-bodies too seem to have come up with a befitting reply and are looking like they will not take things lying down. Already ABN AMRO bank has incorporated additional features in its credit card products. Loaded with a much fresher approach, the