Credit Card Statement, hard copy or e-statement?

Since the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the annual government tax of credit card which cost RM50 has been removed.

The previous annual government tax on credit card was a measure to curb the personal and household debts due to over spending with credit cards.

With the removal of such restrictions, banks were aggressively launching various rebate and loyalty programs to promote their credit cards.

For instant, I do apply a few new credit cards depending on my spending patterns to enjoy rebates and discounts. The rebate can go as high as 5% with certain capping as well as free entrance to Premier Lounge at the KLIA airports.

I noticed that by default, the new credit cads are not sending me physical statements. The banks sent me e-statements instead. Due to the change of mode of receiving the statements, I have unintentionally missed the payment deadline and it causing me time to call up to the call centers for penalty fees waiver.

It was definitely not a very nice experience as I need to communicate with machine before I get to talk to the customer service officer.

Today, not sure what made me think slightly out of box. I did call up the customer service to request for annual fee waiver, before I end my call, suddenly this issue strike my mind, I requested for a physical statement instead of e-statement. The customer officer tried to convince me to compromise with the e-statement initially, however the decision is on the consumer hands.

If you are someone like me that prefer to have hard copy credit card statement, make a call to the call center and exercise your right.