Credit Cards

Shopping for a credit card is tiring business. After eliminating the black/ platiunum/ titanium or whatever-funny-metal cards, the average salaried worker like me is still spoiled for choice.

Maybe I take this too seriously. Knowing the annual fees and card perks is not good enough for me. I still need to know if the card has got a grace period to pay up the credit before the interest starts rolling, then there are the annual percentage rates to consider etc. It's information overload.

Then there's UOB's One Card which not only has a smart chip, but has a RFID chip as well. For a moment I was tempted to get the card until I recalled an article I read many months back regarding the weakness of such cards.

RFID chips are the thing you find in your EZ-link cards, and this advancement in technology allows for the so-called contactless payment. In EZ-link cards things are simpler as not much personal information are actually stored on the card. However when put into a credit card, it stores the credit card information as well as personal information of the user. Card security and consumer privacy becomes a much debated issue. Although major credit card companies have taken measures to secure the card information such that criminals working with credit card scam syndicates will have a hard time getting card information when positioning their card readers near cards with the RFID chip, until it has proven to be 90+% secured I think I will still stick to magnetic strips and smart chips.

As for privacy, RFID chips allows the card holder to be tracked. In fact AMEX was considering placing "consumer trackers" in some shopping malls to keep track of AMEX Blue Card holders' activities in the mall. In case you are clueless, AMEX blue card has got a RFID chip. Talk about big brother or Minority Report complex.

Anyways, think I will shelf my plans to get a credit card for the time being. Maybe 1 or 2 months later I will miraculously find a card that suits my needs without too many boggling information like points or miles system.

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Related sites to this post:

1. Choosing a Credit Card


2. Another Choosing a Credit Card Site


3. Contactless Credit Card Consumer Report 2006


4. A Somewhat Anti-RFID Chip Site