黑咭的誘惑
今時今日﹐大部份的香港人都有信用咭﹐而且平均每人擁有兩、三張，有些人甚至擁有30張咭。這是拜銀行們在過去20年反覆不斷的對我們洗腦之故。『一咭在手、世界通行』，『金咭是身份的象徵』等等都是伴隨我們成長的口號。在20年前，擁有一張金咭的確幾巴閉，但今時今日，一個學生都可以申請得到，何巴閉之有﹖
我第一次見黑咭是十多年前，那個人跟我說這張AE Centurion 黑咭(注﹕Centurion 是古羅馬時代的百夫長，AE 咭上印著的人頭便是百夫長)是 by invitation only﹐跟本不能申請﹐首批在香港發行的數量不足100張。年費$9,999無豁免。試過跟這人去晚飯，他以 Centurion 咭埋單，侍應看了良久後叫他換另一張咭，因為侍應未見過以為是些不知名的信用咭，後來一個識貨的高級經理看到後才立即道歉。那時我暗暗發誓將來一定要拿到一張。
後來﹐出來工作後便立即申請了AE的金咭。在那年頭，銀行業大舉拓展信用咭業務，什麼 Hello Kitty 咭、Tiramitsu 咭、金咭、白金咭鋪天蓋地出籠，加上各種贈品、街頭霸王(推銷員)，不消幾年香港人擁有信用咭數量增加了3倍。本來這沒有什麼問題，可是為了搶客，銀行們開始降低要求，只要有份工就可以拿到金咭、白金咭﹐所以我早幾年也幸運地拿到了AE 白金咭。然而我那張AE 白金咭簽帳額竟得5萬，比起我母親10年前一張普通金咭的十幾萬簽帳額相差竟達一倍﹗
以前年少無知，以為有信用咭便有地位，其實有信用咭即是有負債，信用咭愈多負債便愈多。銀行就是有牌的大耳窿，以信用咭贈品、積分、簽帳回贈等手段讓你先使未來錢，一步一步走向債台高築之路。我有個好兄弟早年便因為不善理財，欠下一屁股的咭數，未婚妻離他而去，弄致差不多要破產，他的欠債今天尚未還完﹗
所以，我差不多將所有信用咭都 Cut 了，凡事用現金，方便得多。
話雖如此，那張 Centurion 我將來還是要拿的。
by 落花流水@沉睡森林
小虎妹 said,
April 26, 2007 @ 1:12 am
多謝小魚參觀我的Blog, 你們的Blog也十分精采，有些與別不同，有很強的創作感，話題亦是平凡中顯突出…good…keep it up!!
其實我也是你口中的’香港人’, 因為我也有十多張的信用卡。記得我大學一年班時回到香港放暑假，偶然在街上被拉著sell信用卡，當時又沒有入息證明、銀行證明，但sales堅持什麼也不需要，只要填上一張form就可以了。最後又真是成功批核了。由那時開始，我就已懂得『先洗未來錢』。到了大學畢業後回港工作，我接二連三的申請一張又一張的信用卡。是一張不夠用麼？是其他卡設計美觀些麽？是迎新禮品吸引我麽?還是積分多一些麼？可能各樣因素也有關係…..
記得上年我爸爸因心臟有事，要到法國醫院做手術。到出院時，費用高達接近十萬元。那時一部份的錢是我用信用卡付款的，可惜我每張卡的信用額也不高，最後我要連續用了三張信用卡才可全數付清，真是失禮！！
人大了，原來最後還是覺得只要擁有一張高額的信用卡已很足夠！
みく said,
April 26, 2007 @ 10:23 am
謝謝~~ 你的BLOG也好有趣. 真的寫得都好TRUE!!!! 貪慕虛榮的みく在這裡忠告大家, 信用卡雖然用的時候是很爽, 到還的時候可是很痛苦的呀>_
亞 sir said,
April 28, 2007 @ 1:34 am
這篇最好看, 笑了幾次
Fashionholic said,
April 28, 2007 @ 2:52 am
黑咭之所以年費貴，也因為她們附設秘書服務，打個電話，機票訂花咩都得，不過後來其他銀行有些白金咭也標榜有秘書服務，DBS亦出了黑咭，聽說有一百萬存款就可以申請呢。
qoo_lan87 said,
April 28, 2007 @ 5:57 am
你好..請問你係點搵到我個blog呢…
你個生活都幾多采多姿丫…唔錯..而且你都幾有文化架喎!
史特拉福 said,
May 1, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
今天和朋友食tea閒聊，他們建議我出cathay pacific咭儲asia miles換機票，又幾好喎！
小烏龜 said,
July 12, 2007 @ 10:55 am
我都寫了篇信用blog , 多多指教 :
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/turtle-win/article?mid=20&fid=9
M5 said,
November 22, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
FYI, AMEX Centurion only been out since 1999, there’s no way you’ve seen it 10+ yrs ago… And from reading your blog, your “Platinum” card is only a credit card, AMEX’s credit card is targeted for lower end market that’s why you have such a low limit with your “Platinum” card.. The real AMEX Platinum is charge card with no preset limit just like the Centurion. And I just got the Titanium Centurion a few weeks ago too, now all the copycat “black” card will again be copycat again ahhahaha!
落花流水 said,
November 24, 2007 @ 1:16 am
M5,
Congratulations for getting that Titanium Card, yeah that thing is pretty cool, and they say you can throw this into fire and it will still work. However, it is not good to put into the wallet coz it’s too stiff. But it’s kinda cool coz everything you pull it out the waiter will have a puzzle face. That is priceless.
Maybe you’re right, I remembered seeing the Centurion Card long time ago, I thought it was 10+ years but when I think about it, it’s probably 98 or 99, so you are right. Are you one of those 100 who got issued the first batch back in 1999?
Yeah my platinum was not the charge card coz they insisted on charging me yearly fee, so I fxxked them.
Have you heard of the AE White Card?
M5 said,
November 27, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
The first batch was in ‘00 for HK, two of my friends got it, the card came in a fancy wooden box. I got mine around end of ‘00 I think, it was invitation which I had to accept first before the card came. And it was standard Centurion package instead of the wooden box…
The Titanium card is stiff, but not so much different from standard plastic card since you can’t or won’t bend plastic card anyway. It fits fine in my wallet and no, don’t think I’ll throw it into fire to make a point haha… You can find almost all information about Centurion here http://www.geocities.jp/ctwxg845/centurioncard2.html or do a search in wikipedia.
And nope, white card, crystal card are all rumors so far… Just like the “diamond” Amex I kept hearing when I was little