what we really should learn from the lost cards
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Just sent a letter to the ST forum. Had to give it a huge dose of self-restraint for obvious reasons.
I refer to the report, “Thieves use her credit cards to charge $17k”.
I cannot help but feel that there has been a glaring error in the approach that many have towards evaluating this issue. While I do feel sympathy for Ms Tan, who now has a sizeable debt on her hands, I also feel puzzled at the way many people believe that the credit card companies should rightfully not hold her to purchases that were an “obvious case of theft”. This is a problem, for it shows that instead of wising up to the incident, some Singaporeans tend to believe others should be there to ‘pick up’ after their mistakes.
Clearly, the only way to mitigate such loss is to learn from the lesson and not repeat it, rather than harp on the ‘indifferent’ nature of the credit card companies. Besides, such a request is unrealistic and has more ramifications than many perceive. If, in this situation, the companies decide to reduce the amount owed, it would simply lead to more people thinking the consequences of losing their credit cards will always be taken care of by others.
People need to be accountable and take responsibility for their actions or inactions. After all, better to painfully pay up now and learn the lesson, than to learn from a more expensive lesson the next time around.
Labels: opinion, straits times
posted by joseph at 1:48 PM