Upon the coming Spring Festival, people are busy buying goods for the festival, preparing red packets of gift money, and travelling … Amid the merry celebration and festival atmosphere, the purses of people are also undergoing the annual “test” again.
Zhang Fang (pseudonym), a citizen of Shenyang who got married recently complained to the reporter, “After getting married, I have more relatives. When going home in the Spring Festival, I am expected to give red packets and gift money to kids of relatives and friends. In addition, my wife also plans to have travels in Hainan and Hong Kong during the festival. I estimate that it is not enough to spend my entire year-end bonus.”
There are quite a lot of young people, who are office newcomers without few savings like Zhang Fang, fearing to celebrate the Spring Festival. In fact, you can solve the problem completely with a suitable credit card. The staff of the Credit Card Center of Industrial Bank (IB) offered fine solutions to the “panic” group.
Repayment in cycles and installments alleviating the burden of purse
The basic function of credit card, as a consumption credit tool, is overdraft for advance consumption. Not only is it convenient to borrow money, but there are also a variety of repayment methods. To avoid the embarrassing situation of being unable to make ends meet, an officer in the Credit Card Center of IB said, we might activate the functions of repayment in cycles and installments for credit cards.
As the name suggests, “repayment in cycles” means that, without making a special application, a cardholder can pay off the “minimum repayment” before the date of repayment indicated on the current statement, and the remaining amount in arrears may be taken as the cycling credit balance and postponed for successive repayment. Moreover, the cardholder may also decide the specific amount for postponed repayment according his or her own financial situation. Although the interest of “repayment in installments” is calculated on a daily basis, the spending pressure of the cardholder may be alleviated to a considerable extent in general.
In addition, when there is any consumption in large amount to a credit card, and the cardholder has no ability to make full repayment, it may be a good choice to resort to “repayment in installments”. Compared with “repayment in cycles”, “repayment in installments” only requires the fixed amount to be repaid in each month and is free of pressure of rolling interest rate, so it is more propitious for cardholders to make easy consumption. Now, many banks have released the service of “repayment in installments” for credit cards, including consumption installment, statement installment, and cash installment. After paying the handling commissions at certain ratio, cardholders may make repayments freely according to different installments. Let's take the “statement installment” of IB credit card as an example. It may provide different installments including 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36. Cardholders may handle the installment service in one lump-sum according to the transaction amount in the issued statement. In order to make it easy to handle the service of payment in installments, from now on all holders of IB credit cards may write and send the short message “CCZD + space + the last four digits of card number” to 95561 to apply for the repayment service of “statement installment” for 12 installments.
Nonetheless, the above officer also reminded cardholders that repayment in installments with credit card was only an effective way to alleviate temporary repayment pressure, but everyone should make reasonable consumption based on his or her own financial situation. It is suggested that the repayment of each period may not exceed 2/3 of the income of the current month, “so that cardholders can avoid heaped up arrears and subsequent difficulty in repayment resulting from impulsive consumption”.
Giving attention to preferential promotions to make your consumption “value-added”
In confrontation with the furious market competition, banks often launch various preferential and concessional promotions in order to improve the loyalty and adhesiveness of customers and enhance production competitiveness. Wise cardholders can enjoy substantial benefits only by giving attention to such promotions.
Staff of IB recommends cardholders to pay attention to the official website of IB Credit Card (http://creditcard.cib.com.cn) and mobile APP on the one hand, and pay attention to the advertisement page attached to the monthly statement and SMS invitations for IB activities on the other hand, choosing suitable promotions according to their own needs. Of course, cardholders can also get rich information on preferential promotions in a timely manner via media channels including Weibo (@Industrial Bank Credit Card Center) and WeChat.
For instance, from now on till the end of this year, one can have multiplied points rewarded by booking air tickets via the value-added service hotline of IB credit card 400-821-0998 (ext. 7): points rewarded in fivefold or fourfold are available for a cardholder paying the price for booked air ticket with a non-airlines joint-brand credit card or an airlines joint-brand credit card.
Concessions are also available for hotel reservation. From now on till December 31, one can receive the refunded return amounting to 10% of the guest room price within 60 days by logging on http://cib.elong.com to make reservation for domestic hotels and paying the guest room price in full with an IB credit card. If one chooses 7 Days Inn which charges a lower price, he or she only needs to log on the official website of the inn, make reservation via the port for cooperative banks cards and pay the room fees of any branch of the inn around China. Then, he or she can receive 6,000 rewarded points for IB credit card for each type of room a night, and enjoy the privileges of room price for member, reservation till 19: 00, and postponed check-out till 13: 00.
By the end of February, IB credit card also launches the preferential activity of Alipay gift money for any overseas transaction amounting to RMB 1,000. After a successful application by writing and sending the message “CCDH” to 95561, a holder of IB credit card of dual currencies can receive the Alipay gift money of RMB 30 (up to RMB 3,000 for each person), and a holder of UnionPay credit card (with card number starting with 62) may receive RMB 50 (up to RMB 5,000 for each person) for a single oversea transaction with an amount reaching RMB 1,000 after conversion.
In fact, one may also receive surprises to pay attention to the channels for releasing information on preferential promotions for credit card. By the end of this month, one can take part in the lucky draw activity which provide diversified awards in considerable amount by following the official WeChat of IB credit card (WeChat No.: cib_creditcard) and enter the public official account to send the application message “BM + mobile phone number (reserved with the bank)”, and the top prize is iPad mini tablet.