Applying For A Credit Card

I’m going to be applying for a credit card soon. For the very first time. At the age of 36. I have always been anti-credit card for most of my life. My policy was “if I don’t have the money, don’t spend it!” It seemed to be the wisest thing to do at the time. However, I am finding that it’s difficult to go along without a credit card as the months go by. There’s just so much stuff that I feel that I need it for and can use it for and not having one is a pain in the ass. Coming up in February it will be time to renew my website’s server space (well, if the world survives the 21st of December, 2012 that is) and the only way to do so is to pay for it with a credit card. The past 6 times I have”borrowed” my father’s credit card and then immediately paid it off using my cheque book as I didn’t want any issues coming against that amount. It’s not much, it’s less than $44 or less than Rs.2,400 or thereabouts.

For the past 6 years that’s the only time I have used a credit card. Once a year! Now I could have used a credit card many times but not having one, I make do with my debit card or through cash or netbanking. But not having a credit card is a hindrance. For instance, my server space provider being an American company, only accepts payments through CC or Paypal. I need a CC to create a Paypal. Also, for getting paid for online work, for anything that I would like to freelance for and that is outside of India, Paypal is the preferred method of payment. I have lost many such opportunities just because I didn’t have a Paypal account. Damn! That is so annoying. Plus if I want to buy a new laptop or something like that I would need an EMI against the amount of the system – but they only accept EMI on credit cards! See my point?

So I am applying for a credit card soon to solve my problems. I just hope I don’t create new ones by overusing on it. But I can’t see myself going for long without one. I just need to get my PAN card in order and once that is done, I will apply for one. Standard Chartered, ICICI or HDFC. One or the other. I need one.