Is it a Rewards Card?

Assumption is something which we all do. According to me, assumption doesn't always end up being true. Certainly there are some exceptions to it. Like: Corolla owners do not know ANYTING about cars. Paris Hilton has her brain replaced by a make-up kit, which is also worthless. Russians are idiots. Any Desi in the US who starts up a conversation with another Desi is from Quick Star/Amway. And, are morons. AT&T sucks, and I'll stop right here before I offend the rest of the world.

Actually let me mention one last assumption. If you are a Desi working in the US, your Desi colleague will always always assume you are a consultant. When, that colleague himself is a consultant i.e. I have always been asked how long my project was with my current company. I would respond saying I'm currently on three projects, and which one is he asking about. To which his response would be, "Oh, you are working with three clients? Triple billing rate? How did you manage that?". At this point I just start walking away.

I don't blame him either, as there are thousands of Desi consultants here. A good number of consultants live a different lifestyle. Fly out on Monday, live in a nice hotel till Thursday and fly back home on Friday. Wash, rinse and repeat. Except in the second cycle, the destination will be a different city. All this is done without spending a dime from his pocket. All the expenses are covered by the company.

The untold benefit is, in the personal credit cards that the consultant uses for all the expenses, to get reimbursed later. The points which are collected. So he can buy personal air tickets and other things he doesn't want using these points. One of my friends has been a consultant for over 4 years and till now hasn't paid for a single air ticket, rental, hotel and a million other things. In fact he doesn't value an item by the dollar anymore. Ask him how much milk cost him? He'll say 1500 points.

There are too many credit card companies and the benefits are great, thanks to the competition. In the first four months of this year, there were 10 million credit cards issued. If your jaw dropped for that, then read this. That's only half the number of the cards which were issued last year. Today there is more plastic than leather and paper in your wallet/purse. I know a person who has credit cards in all colors possible.

We have seen ads which say with one of these you can buy the world. Certainly. I can, you can, everyone can. The only problem is paying it back. This is similar to the problem a man was facing this week. He had a 17 figure bill to pay. $23,148,855,308,184,500 to be precise. And he definitely didn't buy the world at Walmart. All he bought was a pack of cigarettes. Must be an expensive one, though. With that sort of money you can build the Earth. Twice.

He almost passed out when he saw the statement and went to the gas station to ask why they overcharged him. Overcharged is an understatement here. By the time he came home, there were people waiting at his door. Namely GM, Citibank, Air India etc asking him to bail them out.

Fortunately for him the bank said it was glitch in the system. The article said they waived the $23 quadrillion charge and the $15 overdraft fee. What the article didn't say is about the 23 quadrillion points he would have accumulated. In common man terms that would ideally be $235 trillion!