Today is my mom's 54th birthday. I made a phone call to her this morning, and guess what... her bank was giving her privilege as a credit card user to enjoy the meals with half price off in a fancy restaurant named 'Bebek Bali' (literally means: balinese duck) in Taman Ria Senayan, Jakarta. So today she has treated not only my dad and my brother, but also all of her siblings and some siblings in laws, together with their children, which are my cousins, to have lunch there... well, she considered it as a family gathering or 'arisan' kind of thing.
The good thing of being credit card holder is, we can have some privileges given by the issuer bank in many different places. For example, every month the bank always sends us offers to enjoy at least 10% discount in fancy restaurants, spas, boutiques, executive lounge in airports, even 5-star hotels. If u're having a birthday, the discounts can be up to 50%, like my mom had. One time my mom got a one-night stay voucher for two at Hilton hotel. Instead of asking my dad, she asked me to spend the weekend there. Beside, my dad would definitely refuse that, and in fact he said that we don't have sense of crisis, there are lots of starving children out there, and many other humanity speech came out from him, after knowing that we decided to stay over there. Oh c'mon dad, it's not that we paid for this, rite? Evenso, my dad was still generous to send us to the hotel. It happened around 8-9 years ago, when Indonesia just got hit by severe economic crisis.
Of course the banks don't do those kind of things without reason. It's all for customer loyalty. Loyalty is everything for all kind of business. But often credit card holders are always trapped into consumerism. And the next thing will happen is, they tend to delay the payments, interest is getting higher, they can't afford to pay, and finally the debt collectors always chase after them. My brother works in a bank, and once he told us that the collection division guys are the kings of swearings. Those 'kebun binatang' swearings are often heard when the guys who work there are making the phone calls to poor customers who haven't paid the bills.
Well, the conclusion is, banks are nice to us, as long as we're 'nice' to them. It's just 'take and give' kind of situation.
No money, no talk!
The good thing of being credit card holder is, we can have some privileges given by the issuer bank in many different places. For example, every month the bank always sends us offers to enjoy at least 10% discount in fancy restaurants, spas, boutiques, executive lounge in airports, even 5-star hotels. If u're having a birthday, the discounts can be up to 50%, like my mom had. One time my mom got a one-night stay voucher for two at Hilton hotel. Instead of asking my dad, she asked me to spend the weekend there. Beside, my dad would definitely refuse that, and in fact he said that we don't have sense of crisis, there are lots of starving children out there, and many other humanity speech came out from him, after knowing that we decided to stay over there. Oh c'mon dad, it's not that we paid for this, rite? Evenso, my dad was still generous to send us to the hotel. It happened around 8-9 years ago, when Indonesia just got hit by severe economic crisis.
Of course the banks don't do those kind of things without reason. It's all for customer loyalty. Loyalty is everything for all kind of business. But often credit card holders are always trapped into consumerism. And the next thing will happen is, they tend to delay the payments, interest is getting higher, they can't afford to pay, and finally the debt collectors always chase after them. My brother works in a bank, and once he told us that the collection division guys are the kings of swearings. Those 'kebun binatang' swearings are often heard when the guys who work there are making the phone calls to poor customers who haven't paid the bills.
Well, the conclusion is, banks are nice to us, as long as we're 'nice' to them. It's just 'take and give' kind of situation.
No money, no talk!
1 comment:
kok gada posting ttg birthday yg atu lagi *wink*
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