Summary
Young Indians are now being inundated with credit card offers and they are using their credit cards to run up severe debts. Despite the luxury cars and the beautiful homes they are buying, many young, middle-class Indians are also in up to their necks and they are creating a situation where they will wallow in debt for the rest of their lives.
Original source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1049900.cms
Details
From instant consumerist nirvana, south Delhi plastic junkie Sumit Khurana woke up one morning to a debt nightmare: a 'collector' had landed at his doorstep after repeated phonecalls.
He refused to budge until Sumit paid the immediate payment due on his outstanding amount of Rs 30,000.
Sumit had to take a loan of Rs 1 lakh to pay off the dues on all his credit cards.
For an EMI-living middle class India striving for a good life, easy loans and credit cards have brought closer not only their dreams --- house, luxury car, luxury holiday --- but also that circle of debt.
"Bad debt is fast catching up with consumers and is becoming a major worry for most banks," says Vijay Mehta of Mumbai-based Credit Card and Management Consultancy.
The 'default' rate --- money which is never paid back by consumers --- is 8 per cent of all outstanding credit of card companies, and may touch 10 per cent by year-end, he says.
Probably the reason why multinational banks now hire three types of agents: for selling, for verification and determining credit worthiness, and for recovery.
It doesn't matter if your income is as low as Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month.
In fact, entry-level employees form a major chunk of those taking personal loans, says loan agent for HDFC, K K Sharma.
"Market mein gol gappa dekhte ho to kha lete hai."
(You end up eating gol gappas in the market even if you hadn't planned on it.)
That's why banks are aggressively marketing loans.
Besides home loans and car loans --- growing at about 40 per cent --- there is a huge increase in the number of personal loans also.
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Monday, March 21, 2005
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