Entry No.100e

IT Writers Awards

Now that my wife and I have wisely decided to abort our daring plan to buy our first home in an environment of ballooning interest rates and GST hysteria, I'm on the lookout for a credit card.

Seeing as though it has been a while between credit card application drinks, I assumed the task would be relatively pain free and quick. So it came as some surprise in this day and age of Internet-enabled, speedy service that it is best not to assume the assumed.

First task: choosing the best card with the best mix of side benefits proved a challenge in itself. Just about every institution offers at least three flavours of credit card from Visa to MasterCard to American Express. And that's not to mention Gold Card and Fly-buys branded cards.

Selecting the card with the best interest rate was no walk in the park either. I decided to compare rates listed for all cards using Yahoo's financial portal site and MarketFaxts' BankChoice portal. Both sites proved very helpful. However, accurate comparisons were made somewhat difficult by the fact that both sites reported different rates for some identical cards.

Suffice to say, I took the punt and settled on AMP Banking's credit card because it appeared to offer what seemed to be the lowest interest rate. Satisfied with my search results, I headed off to AMP Banking's site to apply online. At least that was what I thought I would be doing. Instead, I was asked to print and fill out the application and then fax it to an AMP processing centre. Funny thing was that every field on the form could have easily been answered online with the only online physical intervention being the required signature, although the necessity of that is debatable.

On contacting the AMP Banking support centre, I discovered that my application would not be processed for at least a week owing to heavy demand for credit cards. Any extra information to keep the customer happy, such as steps to be taken once the application is received, were not forthcoming.

Frustrated, yet undaunted, I pressed on with the application and finally faxed it through.  Four working days later I called the support centre to track the status of my application hoping for a quick turnaround - still no luck. "Hasn't appeared on the system as yet," was the operator's reply.

To put all this into perspective, I'm not bagging AMP Banking specifically, as only a few banks appear to have online application capability. I can understand that AMP may have been swamped by customer interest in its new direct banking initiatives. I can also understand that credit cards can often be a risk assessor's worst nightmare. 

However, it is worth considering the fact that online-savvy potential customers might well jump ship if they cannot "apply right now" to earn the low interest rate carrot and take advantage of all this online application talk.

Let me know your thoughts. 

Send email to cameron.tomes@informa.com.au J

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