I need to buy a few books from online sites, and need a credit card for this. I dont have a credit card and would like to apply for one now.
Which is the best cc in india which allows foreign payments i.e allows me to buy from foreign sites?
Also i heard abt online cc whic expire in 24hrs or so.
rather confused as to which i should take - the normal cc with int validity or those expiring ones..:S
nedd your help on this guys 
any cards giving international visa will do i suppose ā¦ as a rule i hate credit cards so dont have any of them ā¦ i keep using my friends 
credit cards =debt trap.stay away from them.
My credit card balance is always full. trying desperately to kick this habit .need help.
Depends on how you use your cc.
If possible stick with the card of the bank in which you have account if the bank is offering.
It makes it much more easy to manage payments etc.
Basically all VISA / MasterCard CC are almost equally good irrespective of the bank. Just see which bank is ready to give you the max credit limit.
And i hope you have pancard as most of the banks ask for that as a identity proof for issuing of CC.
^^The credit limit you get is based on your salary or disposable income.
U need HDFC Debit/ATM card for this. Its safe .
Well, Having a credit card is not a bad thing. Its a very useful little thing to have. Whats bad is getting into the habit (addiction) of swiping it every where you go. Having the convenience of credit card doesnāt mean that you go around using it everywhere. Remember you are the master of the credit card and not vice versa. 
As for your current situation, you have to get out of the habit yourself with some self control, no one else can help you in that matter.
As for me, I pay most of my bills online through credit card. Also booking flight tickets etc is easier with a credit card. But I make it a point to clear the CC bill the in the same cycle its billed.
Another question is how many credit cards should one keep. These days most of the banks offer life time free credit cards to people in the corporate sectors. As soon as most of our Indians hear the word free, they begin to pile up as many as they can get. In some cases, the marketing guyās pester so much that you give in. Normally these marketing people have an answer to every excuse you give for not applying for their card. In my case, when a marketing guy comes over to offer me a CC, I just show him my wallet and tell him that adding one more CC would make the wallet to fat to keep in the pocket. 
The guy is normally is too dumbstruck by the excuse or laughing so much that he will not pester me again.
In my opinion, having lots of credit cards is one of the ways of loosing control. when you have so many cards lying around, you tend to use them. In my opinion, two cards to cover two billing cycles are more than enough. Also donāt go in for very high max limits. Having a reasonable credit limit is a good way of keeping you in control.
I myself have two credit cards (HSBC and SBI) covering two different billing cycles and a max credit limit of 1.2L. Its more than enough for me.
^^Absolutely spot onā¦ as long as you dont overspend, you should be fine ;). Also most card companies give ridiculously high limitsā¦ atleast in my case. I dare not spend so much or iād be dead :P.
Bottom line: if youāre responsible, it doesnāt matter how many cards you have, you will use it wisely. Iāve got many but I use 1 for online transactions and 1 offlineā¦ never goes out of control
nemsis care to explain
two credit cards covering two different billing cycles
^^pretty simple..he has 2 cards which receive the monthly bill (of his expenditure for the month) at 2 different intervals..for ex. he may recieve the bill for one card on 15th of a month and one on the 30th..tht way, he can decide which card to use to get the maximum time to pay back the amount..normally u get around 15 days once u receive the bill to pay the amount..so if u use it judiciously, u can buy whatevah u want after u receive the bill for a month..tht way, youāll get 30 days + 15 days for paying back the amountā¦
Iāve got a lifetime free CC from ICICI bankā¦mostly used for paying bills online..thts all..
^^Means the payment due dates for both cards are during different dates of the monthā¦ generally one at the beginning of the month and the other in the middle of the month. Everyone who has two cards generally does this.
Well its like this. My HSBC card is billed on 24th every month and the new cycle starts on that day. So if I have to make a purchase on the 23rd, I would have to pay it in the bill generated the very next day (i.e I have to pay it up in the next 15 days). So if I have another card with an alternate billing cycle like say its billed on 10th of the month, I can use that card for purchase on 23rd and I would have some time before Its billed. My SBI card is billed on the 10th. So I can make a purchase on any day of the month and still have some time to pay it up.
Two cards are enough to accomplish this. Having more cards just helps increases your credit limit and purchase power.
Edit: Ryan and Chaos beat me to it.
In my case, HSBC has a system where they increase the max limit based on usage patterns and salary. I just told them not to increase my max limit when they asked. I normally use a single card (HSBC since it also has my salary account) and the max limit is set such that even if I reach the max, I can pay it up still have enough left for me. So I wouldnāt even have a chance of dealing with that kind of situation.
what abt those online 1 day cards? i tried to find one of the on icici bank site but couldnāt. i read in some other thread that icici gives such type of card.
keep your CC only for online payments n bills
keep a debit card for everything else
there has been nice points raised but the original of 6pack lost in it
you need to apply to a cc issuing bank and opt for international master / visa card. which will take atleast one month.
if you have debitcard of any good private sector bank then also you can purchase from online store provided at that time you have enough dough in your account.
Now about one time use online cc : its nothing but a proxy infront of your real cc /dc so you dont reveal real cc number to fradulunt site in accident, its really helpfull.
HDFC bank issues these in name of Netsafe cards. i Used it once and it was pretty nice and through.
:thanx: @medpal for clearing things up.
i have dcās from uti and icici. do foreign sites accept indian dc?
^^Dont know about others but my ICICI DC didnt work for me when i tried it on a few domain registration sites tht accepted debit cards as well..:no: Though it is visa approved, the sites kept returning a message, āpls check the 16 digit number and enter againāā¦:@ Thts why, i use my CC for all my online transactions, instead of the buggy DCā¦which has problems with acceptance..:no:
afaikā¦ international debit cards do work on online websitesā¦ but not 100% sure..
now that i have my own hdfc intl debit card..i wanna try it out lolā¦ i think some online purchase would do..lol.
from what i have learnt from my limited card experience is that financial freedom could be a dangerous thing if you dont have expenses and incomes balanced properly.
DCās dontwork anywhere online