Credit Cards

One year, while traveling with the children in Canada, I had a difficult time because I didn’t possess a credit card.  Credit cards were something I simply did not need on Bequia but my lack of one made it hard to rent a car or check into a hotel in other parts of the world.  After a particularly frustrating experience at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto I returned to Bequia determined to apply for a credit card.

I had just started taking credit cards at the Pizzeria.  Up until then people paid for their meals with either cash or travelers’ checks, but the need for a credit card machine was growing.  I was reluctant to take credit cards, there was no way to tell if a card had been stolen or had gone over its limit, and to me that was a dangerous way to do business.  How times have changed!  Now a waiter can bring a portable credit card machine to the table where the transaction is done instantaneously, and if the card is no good it’s declined.  No more dealing with flimsy slips needing an imprint of the card, no more waiting for your account to be credited!

The manual machine used for credit cards at the Pizzeria was owned by Barclay’s bank, and I was able to accept Visa or Mastercard.  I declined to accept American Express as it took more than two weeks for the funds to be credited to the business and that was too long a wait.  I also had to pay the bank a whopping 4.5% for taking American Express as opposed to 4% for Visa or Mastercard, which was still a lot of money!  My mother had talked me into applying for the Merchant credit card machine, and although I hated paying that 4% to the bank many customers appreciated being able to pay me with a card instead of cash.

Returning from my trip to Canada I went to Barclay’s Bank and approached the counter to get an application form for a credit card.  I was attended to by Miss Francis, and when I told her what I wanted she reared back in shock and said, “You want to apply for a credit card??  For you personal??”  I replied in the affirmative, explaining that I needed one for when we traveled.  “We don’t give credit cards to just ANYONE” she exclaimed in a loud voice, “You can’t have an application form!”

Mac’s Pizzeria was one of the busiest restaurants on Bequia and I had been a customer at the bank since my arrival on the Island.  Barclay’s was the only bank on Bequia so they got all my banking business, yet I couldn’t have an application form for a Barclaycard???  I left the bank shaking my head in wonder.

I walked back to the restaurant and encountered the bank officer from the mainland who had overseen the processing of my Merchant credit card account.  He had come for lunch with a colleague and asked me if I was happy with the service the bank was providing.  Well, the man got an earful!  I explained to him what I had just experienced at the Bequia Branch of the bank and he was shocked.  He opened his briefcase, took out the application form Miss Francis had so adamantly refused to hand over and got me to fill it out on the spot.

Two weeks later I received my very own, very FIRST credit cards, one Visa and one Mastercard.  I was careful to explain to all who would listen that those cards were not issued to just ANYONE, you had to be pretty special to get your hands on an application form!