DISCOVER the Road to Financial FREEDOM!

All the new credit cardholders are charged with an annual service tax of RM50 per principal card and RM25 per supplementary card starting this Jan 1 this year.

For existing credit card user, the service tax will be charged on the anniversary of card issuance.

Read more about RM50 service tax at Maybank Announcement On RM50 Credit Card and Charge Card Service Tax

As expected, the growth of card usage is to slow down as cardholders cancel some of their credit cards. With reduce the number of cards in circulation, the express courier industry have incur more than RM10 million in losses!

The RM50 service tax was detrimental to the express courier industry as many people had cancelled their cards, which in turn, affected the express courier business.

The express courier industry deliver up to 12,000 credit cards to people daily before the RM50 service tax was introduced and this provide a lucrative profit income.

However, the courier services are only distributing up to 5,000 credit cards nationwide daily as the people feel burdened by the RM50 service tax.

The loss of more than RM10 million is effecting express courier industry alone!

How about other industry?

What is  the fate of the credit cards promoter?

It is still too early to deduce the full impact of the RM50 service tax as some cardholders will be only be cancelling their cards when the renewal time approaches.

It was reported the credit cards in circulation dropped from 11.1 million in November to 10.8 million in December and 10.4 million in January.

Principal cards fell 6.1% from 9.8 million in November to 9.2 million in January while supplementary cards dropped 7.7% from 1.3 million to 1.2 million.

Due to the imposition of the RM50 service tax, majority cardholders are cancelling some cards and concentrating their usage on a limited number of cards.

It is very hard for the bank to expand their card base unless they can get new cardholders by offering attractive transfers of credit card balances held with other banks.

Customer is at advantage as the bank provide a better packages including freebies, higher credit balance or better reward points in order to lure new cardholders.

I myself intend to keep one credit card only . No more or less!

How about you?

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Couriers losemillions due to credit card tax

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PUTRAJAYA: The recently introduced RM50 service tax for principal credit card holders is costing the express courier industry some RM11 million in losses.

Association of Malaysia Express Carrier president Nadza Abdul said the service tax was detrimental to the industry as many people had cancelled their cards, which in turn, affected the express courier business.

Last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak introduced the tax under Budget 2010 to reduce the nation’s credit card debt.

“Before the tax was introduced, we would deliver up to 12,000 credit cards to people daily, generating a lucrative income.

“Each delivery payment for one card could cost between RM5 and RM8, which means we made up to RM60,000 in just one day if we managed to distribute 12,000 credit cards.

“However, courier services are now only distributing up to 5,000 credit cards nationwide daily as the people feel burdened by the tax,” said Nadza, who was at the launch of the Malaysian Courier Industry 1Malaysia Campaign, officiated by Information, Communication and Culture Deputy Minister Datuk Joseph Salang.

He urged the government to eliminate the five per cent service tax imposed on all courier services as this was also affecting the courier industry.

“This industry contributes as much as RM1.9 billion annually to the country’s economy and it is a vital service industry to all,” he said.

Nadza said there were as many as 100 courier service companies in the country which handled up to an average of 1,000 items every minute.

fr:nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/27hat/Article/index_html