Visa card

Dealing with high finance is all new to me. So, I've made a few mistakes. It could very well be that everybody out there already knows this, but on the off-chance there's another novice out there...

I got a Visa card through the bank I have been with for some 10 years now. I made the silly assumption that because the bank promoted the card it sort of "stood behind it", so to speak. Well, that's not the case.

The relationship between Visa and banks is kind of like paying your phone bill at the bank. It is apparently mutually beneficial to Visa and the bank; but God help you if you run into problems. Everyone at the bank and at the Visa card center was helpful -- everyone apologized profusely -- and Visa even agreed to deduct a late charge and some finance charges that weren't my fault anyway.

Nonetheless, what with administration fees, phone calls, time wasted, etc. all this "make nice" didn't help my balance one bit. So, I closed my account. The good thing is I know Visa is a dangerous beast to be handled with kid gloves -- it has "miscommunications" with its banks -- and it hides in the deepest of caves (try to get through on the customer service lines!). It is a necessary evil, but I predict in the near future we'll be able to pick one up at the 'warung'. And I don't care what the highfalutin intellectuals say, I know this all happened because of the "blinkety-blink" comet!

G. MORGAN CHAMBERLIN

Jakarta