When the card is declined: Because it is more tin or aluminium than gold and platinum

Article Summary

The article at hand offers a humorous take on the stressful and embarrassing situation of your credit card being denied as your bank balance won’t support your expenditure. The author starts off by demarcating between the two types of credit card users in the world. One type carries them about in hordes and uses them like the most natural disposables in the world, and the other type gets increased heart rates every time their cards are presented for swipes. The author identifies himself as part of the second, and says that even though he does have a credit card, he is so unaccustomed to its existence and use that he fears he’ll be called a cheat or otherwise humiliated every time he tries to make purchases with it. To him, it feels like his cards are made of cheap metals rather than the gold or platinum premium credit cards boast of. He narrates an awkward situation he found himself in when trying to use a card – his card was declined at a store. The employee tried to make it work several times, even manually, but his card did not hold even once. Meanwhile, a throng of people were in line behind him at the store, who he felt were simultaneously irritated at the delay and feeling condescending towards him for his supposed poverty. At the very end, he has to resort to the pedestrian way of paying with cash.