"Pay with Points" from American Express

American Express, through its Membership Rewards program, has introduced ‘Pay with Points’, a feature that makes booking flights easier and faster than before for its Platinum cardmembers and the Platinum Reserve credit cardmembers. Pay with Points feature allows cardmembers to instantly redeem membership rewards points for all or part of the cost of any leading airline ticket without blackout dates or restriction when booking travel through American Express Membership Travel Services. 

Which Airline Credit Card to apply?

In the past, American Express cardmembers were able to convert rewards points to frequent flyer miles with Membership Rewards partner airlines. Now in addition, with this ‘Pay with Points’ feature, the cardmembers have an option to use their membership reward points to fly on any leading airlines free of blackout dates or restrictions or memberships to Frequent Flyer programmes.


Cardmembers can call American Express Membership Travel Services to book tickets availing of a choice of airlines to fly including leading domestic and over 50 international airlines. Cardmembers can pay for tickets by combining points with part payment on their American Express Platinum Cards as well as pay fully with the points earned. 

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Credit Card Information - Fetches Big Money

While economies went into a tailspin in 2009, credit card information, wrongfully extracted by hackers, commanded a huge premium in the grey market — more than double the price they did a year earlier. 

In some cases, data encrypted on the magnetic strip of credit cards were being sold at six times more. The username and password of sites like PayPal that accountholders can withdraw cash from, were up by $600 per account. 

On the other hand, bank credentials — account numbers, net banking transaction access codes and personal account passwords — appear to have become a little cheaper over the past one year. So are e-mail passwords over the past one year. 

Card Protection Program FAQs

For instance, leading web security firm Symantec says credit card information — along with the card verification value (CVV) — was $30 per card during 2009 against $12 in 2008. CVV is the three-digit number on the opposite side of the card and is a must for making online transactions. 

Data encrypted on the magnetic strip of a credit card, referred to as credit card dumps, contains the primary account number and the expiration date as well as card-holder’s name. Each credit card issuer has its own standards for encoding this information. The highest price for such information was $140 per card in 2009 against $25 per card in the previous year. 

User name and password of sites, including PayPal, referred to as cash-out services, were selling at 50% of the total value of the cash that could be siphoned off from a single account during 2008. During 2009, the prices increased $600 flat. 

Credit Cards during foreign travel - Points one must take care

Bank account information, however, dropped from $1,000 in 2008 to $850 in 2009. Over the same period, e-mail accounts sold at $20 on the higher side during 2009 against $30 in the previous year. Credit card info and bank accounts still top advertised items in the underground economy. However, credit card dumps saw a marked increase in advertisements.

Popularly called underground economy, there are a set of hackers who deploy various malicious methods to extract sensitive data from unsuspecting PC users. Having extracted a sizeable volume, they advertise on various sites to sell them. The potential of financial gain from these data determines the price for any set of information. 

There is another set of hackers who use such stolen information to extract money,  The ones that steal the information may not always want to use them and, therefore, remain unidentified. Hence, they are satisfied with selling them in the underground economy. The ones that buy them are capable or intend to take more risks than the ones that steal the information... Interestingly, there are two distinct sets of people. 

Prices of credit card information have gone up because credit limits offered were raised over the past one year. Prices of bank account information have declined because it is becoming increasingly difficult to use bank information to siphon off funds. 

Card Protection Program India

Prices are also dependent on factors like average credit limits on cards in specific countries. For example, credit card information in the US will fetch higher prices than those in India or Bangladesh. In contrast, bank account or debit card information from countries like India will fetch more money than in the US since Indians have a propensity to save and, therefore, likely to have more funds in their bank accounts than an average US citizen.

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Credit Card default settlement - with the help of BCSBI

ABOUT BCSBI

The Banking Codes and Standards Board of India is an independent and autonomous watch dog to monitor and ensure that the Banking Codes and Standards adopted by the banks are adhered to in true spirit while delivering their services.

BCSBI is a boon for Indians under financial stress and who are credit card/loan defaulters. If anybody approaches BCSBI, the board will carefully examine one’s case and then recommend a workable solution to the applicant as well as the Nodal officer of the bank. However, you should be genuine with your information.

Procedure for settling your Credit Card / Loan Default:

Þ    Collect the defaulting Account details

Þ    Write a brief cover letter marked to the Officer BCSBI, Mumbai on why you have defaulted; what was your original amount, how much interest has accumulated over it, explaining your case.

Þ    Download and Print the BCSBI Credit Counselling Form [PDF]

Þ    Fill the BCSBI Form and send all the documents to Banking Codes and Standards Board of India C-7, 4th Floor, Reserve Bank of India Building, Bandra Kurla Complex Bandra (East)Mumbai – 400 051.

BCSBI will examine the case and guide you with its advice, and it will also recommend the Bank to consider your case for settlement.  You can also refer our Credit Card Default Settlement - Step by Step Guide also.

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Credit Card default settlement - A helping hand from BCSBI

By opting for counselling, borrowers can amicably settle the dues they owe the banks through debt restructuring.

If you are juggling with multiple credit cards that you happily accepted from aggressive banks without giving a second thought during the good times between 2003 and 2007, and are now hard-pressed to repay the outstanding dues, then you are not alone.

About 40 per cent of the retail borrowers who have approached the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India's (BCSBI)credit counselling wing to sort out debt woes are those who have outstanding ranging from a few thousand to a few lakh rupees on multiple credit cards.

Credit Card Default Settlement - Step by Step Guide

Individuals, who fell for the marketing spiel of direct marketing agents (employed by banks to push credit cards) about the utility of credit cards, may be keen to get out of their debt trap. By opting for credit counselling, they can amicably settle the dues they owe the banks through debt restructuring.

Banks, to a large extent, are obliging by agreeing to convert the credit cardholders' outstanding dues into personal loans, which carry a lower 18-20 per cent rate of interest.

Between 2003 and 2007, when India's GDP growth averaged 9 per cent, banks sold credit cards to all and sundry by diluting their credit appraisal standards. However, when the growth story turned awry following the global financial meltdown in 2008, the chickens came home to roost for banks in the form of credit card defaults.

Credit Card Default and Settlement

The number of credit cards in circulation in India has come down by about 56 lakh to 2.11 crore as of October-end 2009 compared with 2.67 crore as of October-end 2008, according to Reserve Bank of India statistics.

Member-banks, currently numbering 83, will, by and large, heed the advice of the credit counselling cell of the Board, which was established in 2006 as an independent and autonomous watchdog to monitor and ensure that consumers of banking services get what they are promised by the banks.

Though BCSBI started its credit counselling wing in Mumbai almost two months ago, only about 40 borrowers in the retail segment (credit cards, personal loans, vehicle loans, and home loans) had approached it so far for availing themselves of its services, which are rendered free of charge.

Faced with funds constraint, there is only so much that the board could do in terms of creating awareness about the utility of its new service for the masses.

BCSBI's credit counselling services are also available to micro and small enterprises whose credit exposure does not exceed Rs 50 lakh.

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