The happy pre-plastic days, when everyone made quick cash payments at the supermarket, restaurant and petrol station appear to have gone, never to return.

Today, everybody who wants to appear to be somebody will find it incumbent upon them to present a credit card for settlement and, preferably a "Gold" or "Diamond" one to boot.

From my unhappy experience, cashier station queues at my favourite supermarket are now much longer than in those glorious and nostalgic pre-plastic days. And the service is now so much slower because paying by plastic has finally cottoned-on in the Middle Kingdom; eight out of 10 customers seem to be paying with plastic. And this means annoying delays for everyone because of having to carry out additional rigmarole such as:

1) Swiping the card;

2) Waiting for a line to the credit card centre;

3) Waiting for the processing to take place;

4) Waiting for the print-out;

5) Having to enter the pin number;

6) Pinning again if something's wrong with the pin;

7) Getting the customer to sign;

8) Filing the receipt;

9) Accumulating all card transactions at the end of the day;

10) Making the claim to the card company;

11) Waiting for the credit card company to pay the retailer;

12) Sorting out the inevitable snarl-ups.

From my observations, all this fiddling takes about three times longer than a cash transaction.

Frankly, the promotion of credit cards for personal payments seems to me one of the biggest con tricks of the century so far.

To actually get onto the coveted plastic band-wagon, the prospective credit card holder has to fill up some forms and reveal a lot of personal info; have his credit history assessed and he then usually has to pay an annual fee for the privilege of being able to flash his plastic, of anything from 100 to 500 yuan per card.

And substantially more if it is an ego-pleasing "Gold" or "Diamond" model.

Then the shop has to pay a commission to the credit card company, which may amount to 1 to 4 per cent depending on the country and the type of service.

Payment from the credit card company to the shop may be delayed for weeks and finally, the credit card holder needs to check the transaction list at the end of the month for mistakes and/or fraud.

If he/she is unlucky enough to have been granted a credit-line, the cardholder is encouraged to overspend and get into debt and may, in the end, be bankrupted or even be tempted to commit suicide.

Am I over dramatizing? No, certainly not.

I myself have seen these things happen at close range.

Most banks, for which credit cards are a golden egg-laying goose, are aggressively inducing their customers to sign up for their super-duper credit cards and in today's materialistic society, with social pressures pushing many people to spend more than they can afford, credit card induced bankruptcies are not a rare exception.

Frankly, I am puzzled as to why so many people fall for the biggest con trick of the century. Carrying a few hundred yuan in a wallet does not immediately propel one into a prime target for a molestation or armed robbery and the chance of running out of cash on a late Sunday night is remote with so many ATMs around.

What few people don't seem to understand is that charges for the euphemistically called "Service", ultimately, have to come from the consumer's pocket. There is no such thing as a free lunch and supermarkets and retail outlets that run on such razor-thin margins of as little as 3 or 4 per cent can only recoup the credit card charges by increasing their prices.

And since all retailers are in the same plastic boat, price differences among retailers remain negligible, as they all have to, ultimately, pass the credit card charges on to the buyer.

The perceived convenience of paying hotel and restaurant bills and car rentals when away from home is also groundless. ATM's abound in much of the developed world and a service fee of up to 3 per cent can be a big burden on the final bill.

I can only marvel at the power of advertising and the gullibility of the public and businesses to fall into the silly credit card trap.

As for me, I am happy to say that I have not succumbed to the credit card sham. I am a cash payer only. Being a peripatetic globetrotter, I have always found ATMs wherever I have touched ground and by paying cash, I have often been able to get cash discounts of up to half the card commission fee. For overseas transactions, the plot certainly thickens as the exchange rate used in the settlement of credit card charges is NOT a direct conversion from, say New Zealand dollars to renminbi. Oh no, settlement is in US dollars or a common settlement currency so, the NZ dollars are converted to US dollars at, more likely than not, an unfavourable exchange rate, then the US dollars are re-converted to yuan at, again, not necessarily a favourable market rate. Rest assured that someone will benefit, hugely, and unfortunately, this is seldom the cardholder.

Sure, I am happy to grant Mrs. Tan her moment of glory at the pay station by feigning how impressed I am when she flashes her diamond card at the cashier.

As for me, I count my savings after having successfully negotiated for a cash discount by NOT flashing a card.

As for the touted benefits for the consumer and businesses, credit cards can truly be regarded as an additional purchase tax and, ipso facto, a huge drain on the economy.

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