CAUTIONS

• I don’t know the implication of this and how this affects your credit score. If you’re worried about that, please find someone educated in these areas and ask him before proceeding. If it does however affect anything and I know of it in the future, I will update the blog right here.
• I am not the person to take financial advice from. I have performed the worst financially in all my family and friends’ circle ever since I can remember, please find someone else for financial advice. As I say, Take advice from people who know what they’re talking about.

Call:1800-103-5577 (Toll Free Number) taken from call section of https://application.axisbank.co.in/webforms/axis-support/sub-issues/Cards-Credit-cardclosure1.aspx

Note: If this number no longer works in future, google, “Axis Bank Credit Card Closure” and find the Toll-Free Number

Detailed Steps:

1. Do it from a registered mobile services.
2. Say, “Credit Card Close” and other relevant until you are the menu dial option and have to press buttons for credit card services.
3. Once you are on call, here comes the important bit. What to tell them?
4. Level 1: The one with no authority.

1. Tell him, “I have to close this Axis Bank credit card.” He will ask for a reason. Here’s what I said:

1. Nothing on your side. Here the employment situation is terrible right now.
2. I won’t be able to do any payments further.
3. Whatever things I own, I have started to sell them.
4. Financially I have become very weak.
5. I have been let go off my job a few months ago.

2. He will say, you can still keep the credit card for emergency purposes. Here’s what I could think of immediately then:

1. I won’t be able to pay any dues at all. Nothing at all. Situation is really terrible.
2. Situation is really awfully terrible.
3. It’s so bad that I have to move from the residential address I have given you. I have to sell everything.
4. Life situation is horrible.

3. He will check about outstanding amounts if any. Just say you will pay it immediately after this call and that will shut him up.

1. Note: I got confused about the last payment I did a small payment which I think went through but I guess it didn’t. Even if you have to pay a few hundreds extra, I think it’s worth it.

4. He starts proceeding for cancellation, which he doesn’t actually do but only transfers the call to someone with authority probably with a note, “Gareeb ka account band kardo,” “Close this homeless persons’ account.”

5. Level 2: The one with authority. Senior Level. He will ask for a reason, again. Here’s what I repeated:

1. Nothing on your side. Life’s situation is financially horrible.
2. Many people in family got ill. I was let go off my job.
3. I have paid the bill today my taking loans from many friends and family.
4. I won’t be able to continue.
5. I will have to move from this address in a few days the situation is so bad.
6. Situation is terrible on my end.

6. He will ask about outstanding, just say you will pay it immediately after the call.
7. He will say he is proceeding for cancellation and he will say thank you.
8. Optional

1. He already proceeded with the cancellation so this what I said isn’t at all necessary but I know that these people are asked to sell as many stuff they can regardless if the other person is on the road. They are bloodsuckers(not the person on call, he is just doing a job), the higher authorities and they don’t care what one goes through and will probably do something negative to these people. I just wanted to say a few words that might put this person at ease. Maybe it’s of no use, maybe it is, but I did it anyways.
2. Here’s what I said: “ My neighbor works in Axis Bank and the bank is close to my location. If, by God’s grace(Couldn’t pin-point the exact God since they were so many) my life improves, I will visit your bank, open another bank account, and get a proper credit card probably linked to the bank account (which are actually more useful).
3. For now I can’t have this but in future, surely. But for now, please close it.

9. Then he will start telling how how great an Axis Bank/Flipkart Axis Bank Cards’ are and tell you about the cashbacks and all and how great they are. Just listen to him because it’s his job. Even he doesn’t want to say the same.

1. I said I know about the offers and they were the reason I got the card in the first place. He still kept going, so I said, “I understand the offers and I really love them,” but for now I can’t. I will contact Axis Bank physically and if situation improves, I will take the card.

10. He then stops after hearing this and then says the card will be cancelled on the call instantly but temporary. To permanently close the card, you will have to pay the outstanding amount.
11. After the payment is done, under 24 hours you will get the confirmation email about the cancellation. In 15 working days, you will get the cancellation letter on email. He then said, we will put your call on hold and he is going to proceed with the cancellation.
12. He says he has processed the same.
13. The whole call lasted about 15 minutes. I paid the outstanding immediately after the call.
14. In 15 minutes this mail came along but it nowhere mentions about the cancellation.

A week later I got this

Why are you like this Nishant? Why you open credit card if you can’t pay? Why get Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card when you wanted the actual physical one? Why are you gay?

All of my friends have proper jobs and credit cards. They make a lot of money and don’t mind having literally every banks’ credit card and they have limits in lakhs and it does help them out in financial situations and also get many discounts and cashbacks as you must have seen on this channel, so I understand its uses and I genuienly thought, I would also benefit from the same just like they are doing.

I only had a limit of 15,000 which I tried to increase on many occasions by myself but never actually called Axis Bank in the fear that they might actually do it. It’s sort of like, if I get it it’s fine but secretly I don’t want to get it.

Let me tell you what the plan was, the plan was to use this card exclusively for Flipkart and Swiggy purchases:

1. Swiggy purchases turned out to be awful. The prices of the final dishes on Swiggy was always more than on Zomato even with the cashback amount. Most of the time however, the offers were either for very high price, like close to thousands, or were simply not for the Flipkart Branded Axis Card but only for the normal Axis card account. I was really pi$$ed after this when I saw this. Uninstalled Swiggy then and there because it keep selling me more credit cards. WTF! Why is a food delivery company selling me credit cards? What’s your point? “Eat $#!t dishes which arrives cold and soggy at your doorstop for a lot of extra money and die in debt?”
2. Flipkart purchases were a nice thing but most of the time, my purchase used to happen on Amazon rather than Flipkart. Even if we use Flipkart grocery which doesn’t have an alternative here. But this was actually pretty good. The problem lies actually with me, or, more likely, how credit cards and banks are designed psychologically in general.

This extra purchases made me buy stupid stuff which I probably didn’t need. Also I got a phone which is the most expensive phone I ever bought in my life when in truth a half priced phone would have done the job perfectly for me mainly because I don’t use my phone. I am on my laptop most of the day and do entertainment on my tablet.

But since I got into this habit of just taking money on loan again and again, I thought I might stop taking money from friends and just use money on my credit card. Well, it maxes out and I go back to the same thing again. Earlier I used to only take money from friends when I would pay them right away(for cashbacks) otherwise I wouldn’t. This is the first time I have a phone in my hands whose money I haven’t yet paid at all.

The psychological problem: We Start Spending More.

Earlier when I didn’t had the credit card and I wanted to do a stupid purchase which made no sense(food, games, tech stuff for review) I would look at the my bank balance and stop immediately. I would write it down and buy it when I did actually have the money because asking money from friends’ and family isn’t something I enjoy or any other men I guess. It’s not something we cherish especially if it’s your close family and especially if it’s someone close to you.

The emotions I had to go through to ask for the money was enough for me to not buy a lot of things I probably should genuinely have bought but I probably shouldn’t have done anyways.

And that’s the main problem. I started buying more and more stuff, anything I could think of, and this time, I didn’t stop when the credit card maxed out. I sort of got into the bad habit of spending money well under debt. A thing I had never done before. Earlier, I used to stop spending money if I didn’t have money in my own bank account, now I just kept going. This was a terrible feeling and a terrible habit.

Credit Cards can ruin Lives:

On all my youtube accounts I own I have disabled bank and credit companies ads by myself because it can ruin lives. I have seen it ruin people’s lives and I have seen them running everyone else’s.
I also can get a lot of money if I just let people use my links to get their credit cards which I swore I will never encourage.

You would think, how can it ruin lives, all you have to do is spend within limits and pay it before the payment date comes. Apart from the psychological problem above, there is one more thing that you’re missing: Life.

Life is a b!tc#
Life doesn’t come with a manual. Horrible stuff can happen to anyone in life and people don’t usually account for such things until it does happen. Like an accident, a medical urgency, or even if your insurance covers those. What about the physical ability to make money. What happens if you suddenly aren’t in the job anymore or you literally are unable to? What happens then?
What happens despite you being the best employee, your company is ruined by a new CEO or some management heads who all care about making money for themselves even if it ruins the company?

What if suddenly someone is kidnapped and you need to pay Kabira Speaking many khokas?

Charges no missed payments are high:

Then, I must remind you the annual charges on missing your credit card bill starts at 40%. For axis and many private banks, it’s 50% per annum.

Missed payments means you lose the ability to take actual big loans:

Also, when you miss your payment, you lose something that you didn’t realize you had all this time. CIBIL Score, or your ability to take actual big huge loans if needed in life. Due to a small 1 lakh credit card limit thing, you have ruined your ability to take a higher loan. People think they can pay credit card bills on time but I have friends and families and people with their own business asking me money to pay their credit card bills in such nervousness and desperation that it makes me wonder the usefulness of the same.

THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS.

You think you are saving money by using points and cashbacks and all but you also start to spend a lot more than you would necessarily have. These things are designed by many great minds to keep you hooked, to give you that feeling that you are winning just like in a Casino, when the house will always win.