Anthony Clerk, Managing Director and CEO of Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited.
THE head of a leading commercial bank in Barbados is advising customers here to use their credit cards wisely.
Anthony Clerk, Managing Director and CEO of Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited, has issued the advice to Barbadian cardholders who make purchases using their cards. Interest rate on credit card balances is usually over 20 per cent.
In an interview yesterday with The Barbados Advocate, the Republic Bank official said that if persons used their cards wisely, they can get as much as 45 days of free credit.
“So my advice is to use credit cards wisely and to take advantage of the free credit period,” Mr. Clerk said.
He explained that if a cardholder uses the card “right after the billing period, there is a 30-day period before the next bill is due”, noting that there is a 15-day period in which to make the payment.
“So you can use the bank’s money free of cost for 45 days,” the Republic Bank Managing Director and CEO said.
He remarked that many cardholders have been adopting that strategy.
Clerk, who took up his appointment at Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited last October, pointed to some of the key reasons why interest rates on credit cards have traditionally been high. “It is a risky product, the Bank’s lending criteria are somewhat more relaxed when it comes to credit cards, they are unsecured, so they are a higher risked product so the interest rate would normally be higher,” he explained.
“But like I said, it is how you use the card, if you used it wisely you can have the free credit,” he noted.
The banker indicated that since taking up his appointment in Barbados credit card usage at Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited, has been more or less even.
He went on, “But if you find yourself in difficulties paying off your credit card my advice would be to try to term it into a loan to get off of that high rate credit.”
The Banker said that they at Republic Bank had not seen any reduction in the use of credit card for external purposes in light of the two per cent commission which Government had introduced in the Budget last year, on foreign transactions done via credit cards.
That measure was put in place to dampen the demand for foreign exchange.
“It is just business as usual. I suppose that people who have purchases to make, trips to make, they are prepared to pay the two per cent (Commission),” Clerk added.