My friend's father ran a very popular "Ipoh Sar Hor Fan" restaurant in Singapore, the clientele included the rich and the famous. On a very particular night, my friend and his father, of course, yours truly inclusive, went on a binging outing. I remembered the outing covered 13 places. As might be expected, we tried not less than 13 types of drinks, ranging from mediocre draft beer to the exotic XO and not forgeting the award winnig barcadi cocktail served at xx Hotel ( I forget the name of the hotel). For all the transactions, the credit card reigned supreme over cash.
Due to my meagre income, the application to secure a credit card was a futile attempt. The tipping point was in 1981, the HSBC manager stationed at Kuching invited me to apply my very first credit card - MASTER CHARGE. The name was changed subsequently in the following year to the present name - MASTER CARD. As they always say, the rest is history.
The predecessor of MasterCard - master charge
The two circles nearly occupy the whole estate of the card.
1981
The two circles were reduced in size.
1982
The two circles were even smaller now.
1983
They were happy to retain the status quo on the size. No change in size.
1985
They decided the size of the two circles must be reduced further. I have no idea on the subsequent size as I did not own the card anymore. Whatever !
1986
Even though Kuching was one of the biggest towns in Sarawak, the outlets accepting credit cards were not ubiquitous. If my human harddisk did not fail me , only three vendors accepted the usage of credit cards, to wit, Aurora Hotel, Holiday Inn and Malaysian Airlines.
The ownership of credit card did change my life. It transformed my life from happiness to wretchedness. It is like the proverbial saying in Chinese, the water will leverage the sailing of boat, on the the hand, it can cause the boat to capsize.
Over the years, the credit cards have been permanently evolving. For example, Maybank Credit Card used to offer the best reward point. However, it was revised lately from RM0.006 per point to the present RM0.004. Now the reward point ranks below par as compared to cards issued by other banks. As a consumer, the cumulative effect of the point can not be taken lightly for granted.
Notwithstanding the evolution, the attractiveness of credit card is very much subdued. To use it, the vendor will impose extra charge. Is it against the agreement signed between the vendor and the bank? My purchase of KLM flight was imposed with RM50.00. I understand certain other airlines also practice the levy of surchage and the nomenclature of this surcharge is "convenient charge". To use it in oversea, the extra cost can be escalating in terms of constantly fluctuating exchange rate. I am told and forewarned not to use the credit card in Europe as every outlet will impose a min surcharge of 3%. Please enlighten me from those experienced travellers.
