A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO CREDIT CARDS

Clicking the link to this article means you're considering getting a credit card or you already own one and you would like to learn more about its benefits.

This is a guide on using a credit card and fully enjoying its benefits.

Credit cards allow you to pay for goods and services, on credit. In other words, you can be broke and still be able to pay your bills as long as you have an active line of credit.

A line of credit lets you borrow money when you need it, up to a preset borrowing limit, and is based on your level of income. This simply means, the more you make, the higher you can borrow.

Credit cards are issued by a bank or a financial service company that's not necessarily a bank, like O3 Capital.

You may ask yourself "why should I get a credit card?” but the real question is, why shouldn't you?

Taking Banking Services To New Heights

O3 Capital Nigeria is the first and fastest-growing non-bank credit card issuer in the Nigerian fintech space. Licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), O3 Capital provides innovative solutions for its customers and vast network of merchants. Abimbola Pinheiro, CEO of O3 Capital Nigeria Limited, states,

"We are the preferred credit card issuer in Nigeria. While our core business is credit cards, we also offer prepaid gift cards and funds management. Our credit cards have a limit of up to 5 million naira (US$12,000) for personal cards and 10 million naira (US$24,000) for business cards."

O3 CAPITAL GETS AWARDED THE 2022 PCI DSS CERTIFICATION

As one of the fastest growing non-bank credit card issuer in the Nigerian Fintech space, O3 Capital in its over 7 years of operation has consistently shown its commitment to providing end to end customer experiences; and these include providing security and data protection for customers.

This commitment is what has led the organization to be awarded the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard version 3.2.1 certification (PCIDSS). This was awarded by Sync InfoSec LLC, Roanoke Texas, United States (U.S.), a quality security assessor, on behalf of the PCI Standards Security Council in partnership with Digital Encode Ltd, its Nigerian partner.

O3 CAPITAL: CONTRIBUTING TO A CASHLESS ECONOMY

As of 2011, Nigeria had about 60 million debit cards across all banks and across the Visa, MasterCard providers, but credit cards were less than 250,000 - Which was a huge disparity when you compare the numbers against the CBN cashless policy initiative.

The idea behind O3 Capital was that if banks were afraid to issue credit cards because of risk, then imagine a company that could insure that risk, created by banks? But In trying to build on the O3 idea, critical questions were raised like: "Why do we want to insure the risks created by banks when we cannot testify to the process they use to derive and assess those risks?" and doing that would've meant that we would have no idea about what they (the banks) were doing or did. Therefore, we considered issuing our own credit cards, which would allow us to know our own credit scores and protect ourselves against risks. It was this decision that led to O3cards becoming a credit card issuer independent of traditional banks.

CREDIT CARD LOANS: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Securing a loan from banks as a student or business owner is one of the most difficult things in Nigeria. From having to look for collateral and guarantors to the high interest and default rate, the bureaucracy is sure to make a U-turn when it comes to getting a loan.
One thing a lot of people do not realize however is that you can do far more with your credit cards than swiping or using it to shop online: you can actually secure loans on your credit cards. Surprising right? Now you know. This article would enlighten you on all you need to know about credit card loans.

DIFFERENT THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH A PERSONAL LOAN

Personals loans have many advantages and are the best option if you have to take out a loan in Nigeria. Lenders rarely place a restriction on how you can use your personal loan, so the list of what you can do with it is, in a way, inexhaustible. Unlike other forms of financing, some personal loans don't even need to be backed by collateral and have been tagged, "Loans without Collateral". Below are a number of things you can do with a personal loan.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS SAFE

It is no longer news that the era of standing on long queues in banks before withdrawing money has ended. By simply slotting in your credit card into an ATM, you can withdraw money easily and you need not worry about being cash strapped - ATMs are now within a walking distance.
Yet, this technology with its numerous advantages is not without its shortcoming. The advent of ATM and credit card has led to an exponential increase if fraud. It is therefore not surprising to hear tales of money being debited from people's account despite not releasing their credit card PIN to anyone.
To protect you, this article discusses in detail 10 smart ways to keep your credit card details safely.

Why Loans In Nigeria Without Collateral Is Interesting.

Before the advent of unsecured loans (loans without collateral), for middle class and small scale business owners in Nigeria, loans were something that instilled fear in people and people avoided them like the plague that they are.

Because to get a traditional bank loan, collateral must be presented, something with value higher than the loan requested or equivalent to the amount of loan requested. Collateral can range from a luxury car, to a house down to a plot of land, etc. Something tangible or substantial that the bank (the normal go-to for a loan) can use to recover their cash should the customer default in loan repayment.