Friday, July 20, 2007

More to credit cards in India

HSBC claim to have strong security and privacy measures. They provide a hardware device that generates a one time password. You use that along with a pin number and a username to log into their online banking site. Now here starts my timeline. I apply for a HSBC credit card April 2006 and I promply get one by June 2006. They are one of the most blatant solicitors and have call centers spread across the country calling randomly generated numbers. They keep calling me 5-6 times a week soliciting credit cards even after I received one is a different story altogether. So I did get my card and waited for their security device to arrive after requesting one. After many a calls, I did finally get one after almost 9 months only to be able to log into somebody elses account!

SBI solicits cards not only through the phone but also has agents spread across planet earth. You are somehow drawn into their net and apply for one. Now they need to verify your background. What do they need? Your credit card statements from other banks. They have resigned themselves into believing that they are late starters and every individual has already hooked onto some credit card or the other.

End crib.

4 comments:

Brat said...

It is one thing that you logged into someones card and reporting it promptly ... but what if someone gets access to your account and is malicious ...

credit card theft is going to become prominent in India ...

Maverick said...

Definitely..worst part here is people are very lax about online security.

///slash\\\ said...

Well from a guy who has about 6 credit cards-
although the ICICI story seems a bit disturbing(previous posts)
i have an icici savings account using which i got an icici credit card-
now i get calls once in two weeks from icici asking if i want a savings account or a credit card - but this one takes the cake
one fine day, not content with having 6 cards, i decided to apply for deutsche bank card and for proof i gave them my citibank card- two days later i get a call from icici saying they have my hsbc card application- i tell the fine lady that i already have an hsbc card and have not applied for one - she tells me she has my citibank statement and i tell her that i had applied for deutsche bank card and not hsbc. she apologizes and politely angs up. ten minutes later i get a call from icici asking me the same shit:-)) i finally convinve this nut too that i had applied for deutsche bank and funny thing is i have not got a response from them yet:-))

Maverick said...

Alarming to know that credit card companies sometimes use the same unprofessional third party call centers!