Charge It

On any given day, the malls buzz with shoppers in hot pursuit of something they just have to buy. In an age when almost anything can be bought on credit, no purchase is too big or small. Another mortgage, another loan, another day to pay the bills, but, as Maggie Tiojakin reports, the debt is catching up with us.

You zigzag around them, through them or even away from them as quickly as possible. But you can’t miss them: A group of three to five perfectly groomed people in uniforms, handing out application forms and mouthing off on the benefits of this or that credit card, which could be yours if you would only give them the time of day and sign that piece of paper they’re shoving at you.

They work systematically, covering all possible angles, like national guards sent to cover the front line. Well-trained and prepared, they target middle-class personalities: young mothers toting their little ones and laden with grocery bags; mid-level executives finishing lunch at the nearest food court; tabloid-seekers, lifestyle-crazed adults strolling aimlessly from store to store, killing time.

Sounds familiar?

“This is business, not personal,” says “Ika”, a branch manager at one of the largest public banks in the country. “[We] look for clients who can only [afford] their minimum charge each month, because the interest they accumulate over time is what pays our salary.”

It seems rather cruel, perhaps, the idea of luring common folks into signing what is actually a serious business proposal (judging by the number of boxes we have to initial) without the advice of an accountant or a lawyer – not that we need one to obtain a credit card – because we already know what’s coming next: bills, bills, bills. Poring over our monthly statements, we wonder how we’ve managed to squander away our inheritance, paychecks, nest egg, whatever. Or worse: Suddenly, we find ourselves buried under a mountain of debt.

But to blame credit card companies for the amount of debt we have accumulated through our own consumerist zeal is the kind of denial that gets us into the credit card mess in the first place. To be fair, no one ever held us at gunpoint and forced us to max out our limits. We do it of our own volition. From cars to cell phones to baking ovens, there’s a credit agreement somewhere with our names scrawled all over it.

Credit cards are supposed to simplify what was once a complicated matter involving a check book, an ATM and a quick run to the money changer. They are meant to fill in the loopholes of our financial inadequacy so we can meet our desired lifestyle. Unfortunately, our tendency to overspend has led us to a number of complications that often land us at the mercy of the debt collectors.

The last link in the credit card enterprise chain, debt-collecting agencies profit from their work by taking a small percentage of a debtor’s outstanding balance, which can sometimes amount to a rather hefty sum of money.

According to Ika, it’s not quite how it happens in the movies; debt-collecting agents do not turn to violence when hounding the debtors in question. Debt collectors aren’t actually thugs – they just use the “look” to scare people a little.

“They use psychological threat,” Ika continues. “When you’ve got a thug-looking man in front of your house 24 hours a day, people will start to talk – your neighbors, your family, whoever. When people start to talk, that’s usually a good cue for you to start paying.”

However, even though not all is well in paradise, what credit card companies are offering us is still a paradise of sorts. This year, American Express in cooperation with Bank Danamon is promoting a new service called “Concierge”, which enables their customers to pre-order a specific item from anywhere around the world and have it delivered right to their door as soon as the item is distributed to the mass market.

“We reward our customers for their loyalty and business,” says Darwin Tan, American Express Card Business Head for Bank Danamon. “We go out of our way to provide them with a top-notch service because they deserve it.”

Loyalty is no small matter in the world of cash, check or credit card. Paying customers who stick to the card of their choice are 10 in a thousand: They’re the ones who get the ball rolling, who serve as unofficial marketing agents and who, in turn, receive first-class treatment from the card association. It’s not unusual for these customers, by virtue of loyalty alone, to get bumped up from gold to platinum, from a credit limit of Rp 14 million to Rp 24 million – enough to fly to the Bahamas and back.

In the past five years, the battle to score the most customers has heated up among credit card associations. Consumerism is flourishing despite threats of global recession, volatile stock markets and surging food and oil prices – all thanks to credit cards. Faced with a crumbling economy, various industries are getting into bed with credit card companies in an attempt to keep their businesses afloat.

“Sure, it helps,” says Maya, 27, a PR consultant at an advertising firm downtown. “I usually don’t eat at fancy restaurants, but if there’s a promo that involves a 20-30 percent discount for a certain card, I’ll definitely apply for it.”

From restaurants to hotels to airlines to movie theaters, the “promos” are endless. Some offer a discount as steep as 50 percent, others provide free services. It’s a brilliant stratagem to attract new clients and keep the old ones, as they juggle one benefit after another, unable to pass up on the opportunity.

The more cautious customers, Ika says, prefer “smart cards”: a debit card with the privileges of a credit card, but none of the incentives or bonuses.

“Most people sign up for credit cards because of the promotional packages,” she says. “Some because they know their cash flow isn’t enough to cover their daily expenses. Debit cards are useful, yes, but only for those who are never short on cash. Let’s face it, though, a lot of us are usually short on cash.”

Darwin asserts that credit cards give their holders a kind of flexibility in a time when people are becoming more mobile. An extreme – but not improbable – example of when you most need a credit card would be when you are stranded in no man’s land with a passport, your luggage lost and your wallet stolen.

“There’s security in credit cards,” says Darwin. “And I think that that is what attracts people to them. Wherever you are, whatever you need, you just swipe.”

An international membership card, more like it. We’ve come a long way since Diners Club, the first charge card introduced in 1950 by Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider to ease the process of purchasing items from various merchants using a single card. It was only a matter of time before the use of charge cards became a culture that exploits the weaknesses of our consumptive nature.

“I use three different cards,” says Maya. “One for traveling, another for going to the movies and another for general needs. I try to limit myself, though. I’ve heard stories about people not being able to pay and having their houses confiscated by the bank. Ugh, terrible.”

Yet, somehow, the buzz keeps getting louder.

Illustration by Lucynda Gunadi

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