Credit card whizkid
This post is in honor of my friend and colleague S~ herein after referred to as CCW.
What’s so smart about him? Can you get a loan of Rs. two lakhs at a net interest rate of 9-10% per annum without security, without blank cheques, without any records against your name? And without any due dates to pay?
He still stays within the legal ambit. He does not commit any fraud for sure, I can vouch for that.
He has managed so far with nothing but just credit cards. Please bear in mind that ordinary users in India end up paying as much as 37% for credit cards debts. Also bear in mind that its difficult to get home loans at 9% now in India.
He would like to publish the way it works, but only after he is done with all his commitments 
lest the banks and card companies change the rules of the game 
He is a pucca hacker in positive sense even otherwise. He is junior to me by five years. I wish I had his current maturity and intelligence now, or at least five years into the future. Very smart character.
July 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I too wish I had your friend’s savvy. Would have saved a ton on cc fees !.
BTW, there are a number of people here in the US who use CCs to bankroll their modest startups. I remember reading about a famous startup whose founder used 35 cards to fund his venture.
July 5th, 2008 at 8:02 am
mahesh
thanks for the info. sounds interesting. bank roll na enna? how does it work??
reg. my friend, i’ve never seen anyone who has exploited the rules for balance transfer as well as he has
July 5th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Prabu,
As per freedictionary.com, one of the meanings of bankroll is “To underwrite the expense of a business venture”.
Here, I meant not only the costs associated with starting a business but also the capital itself.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Years back, I used to have a webhosting business. I paid for the server using credit cards while I used to get cash from my customers.
Initially this worked well and I used to get a ‘float’ which buffered and also supported other expenses. As customers defaulted or delayed, this was not so easy or cheap.
July 6th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
In US we used to have the 0% APR for 1 year promos. There’s an entire world revolving around it. They even invented a new word called App-o-Rama where one will apply for all such cards in a single day. Each of those cards will come with 10k or 20k credit limit which can be withdrawn and safely deposited at MM funds or CDs.
Not any more though….
Here’s the king of app-o-rama http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/632935
July 9th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Actually there are three problems with this “pucca hack”
1. You don’t get tax rebate if you don’t take the loan as home loan. Overall, you might end up with loss considering that you have to invest more and/or pay more tax
2. Credit card interest rates are *highly* volatile. It might increase slowly and without you getting any hint of an imminent increase.
3. 2Lakhs - Is it me or that amounts seems really really low in today’s world?? Typical home loan starts from something like 7-8L — an amount not possible to ‘hack’ into using cr. cards
July 9th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Vivek
No i did not mean to say that he actually bought a house/flat with that two lakhs. If my post gave you that impression, then its my mistake.
The reference to home loan is to merely hint that ‘even’ home loans, which comes with documentation, collaterals, income eligibility etc are more expensive. i think i missed out even in my post.
BTW he uses more than a handful of cards from nearly all the banks. He utilizes a set of cards at any given point. The rest are dormant.
He never makes any purchases using any of these.
He has a separate 10,000 rupee limit card for that.
He maintains an excel sheet to track all CC dude dates, amount in debt, minimum amount paid for each card. etc.
I made the mistake of ‘advicing’ him earlier on. Not anymore. I think he knows what he is doing.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:36 am
karthik,
LOL at the name appporama
thanks for the link.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:37 am
mahesh
nandri hai
yeah managing a business with credit cards is challenging.