When John Fernandes wanted to pay for the gold his wife liked at the exhibition in Margao, he paid by credit card. However when he goes out to party with his friends on the tourist belt he prefers to pay by cash. That in essence sums up the usage of credit cards in the State. With all the national banks present in the State, everyone is competing to be in the pocket of the average Goan making for a very interesting battle.
The nationalised banks in the State don’t market the cards directly but use the services of a marketing subsidiary to push for sales. A senior executive of SBI cards who is not authorised to speak to the media revealed they signed up 500 new people every month. They go over to the office or residence of the person who calls up the bank expressing their interest. The people who call the bank usually have an account with them. They never cold call. According to the senior executive the Goa market usually added 1500 new card holders every month. HDFC wins around 600 new customers every month, SBI 500, Axis 200 odd and the remaining amongst the rest.
Like many things in this economy, there was a distinct drop in the number of credit cards being acquired when the economy slumped. The demand for cards returned two months ago and the senior executive at SBI cards said it was driven by young professionals and young businessmen who travelled extensively within the country. The limit he said was usually a minimum of Rs 10,000 and a max of Rs 5 lakh. With regards NRI customers, cards were always given against their fixed deposit to avoid any problems in the future.
Another major national bank, Canara Bank again had around 300 credit card holders in the Panjim branch which had around 10,000 to 15,000 account holders. Virendra Kumar Malati the man responsible for increasing the number of credit cards amongst the account holders said there was general reticence when it came to credit cards. The fear was, he said, they could lose control and end up paying huge sums. Most of his account holders he said were members of the salaried class. Of the 300 new card holders, a few were businessmen who would be required to travel at a minute’s notice.
Sridesh Thakur at ICICI Bank, Panjim branch said “We were getting around 400 new customers every month. This is largely fuelled by young entrepreneurs who travelled a lot who were attracted by the benefits that accrued from using the card. Points accrued help towards payment of air tickets and free entry to first class accommodation in airports. The best age group to tap into for credit cards are between 22-40 beyond that, it was just a waste of time”.
Card holders in Goa he said paid for air tickets and regular daily expenses with a card. Purchases at the mall were paid by credit card but entertainment was usually paid by cash. This is because most of the owners do not like to issue a proper bill. Attempts to get some of the prominent restaurants to come on record proved futile. Some said given the poor state of business it was difficult to pay the fee charged by credit card companies.
In Goa, purchases on line are generally paid by cash when the delivery is made and this could be for a shirt or a laptop. Given the general preference to pay cash in the country and here in Goa, online portals now offer an extra 10% or 15% discount if the payment is made via credit card. Television sets purchased online have been paid via debit or credit card though, white goods dealers in the State claim that the general populace like to pay in cash however large the bill.
