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Credit card in Nigeria

What is a credit card?
A credit card is in most cases a small rectangular electronic plastic card that offers financial credit to its users.

Credit cards are issued by Nigerian banks and other providers nowadays and not just debit cards. A credit card and a debit card are two different things; a credit card offers a sort of loan for a fee to it's user to be repaid within a specified period, while a debit card is actually your own money which you have converted in electronic form into a plastic card. Although most banks offer prepaid credit cards or debit cards, they are different from credit cards which some of them also offer. A credit card, in most cases attract a fee and it's a loan that is given in electronic form, in a card, to its user to be repaid at a future date. A credit card allows its user time to repay his loan which he is ordinarily expected to be able to, in a few months. Nigerian banks have now become issuers of credit cards in conjuction with foreign brands like Visa and Mastercard.

Kinds of credit cards issued in Nigeria
1. Naira denominated credit card
2. Foreign currency denominated credit card

Naira denominated credit card
Ordinarily, credit cards are supposed to be in the local currency of the issuing bank but most banks in Nigeria started issuing cards which were not denominated in Naira and which require that you open a domicilliary account, bring the dollar equivalent of the required opening balance which is mostly $150 and all the other necessary required documentation like an international passport, But recently, Ecobank introduced naira credit cards which offers you real credit and is denominated in naira. Naira Credit Card
enables customers make purchases on credit. This means you don't have to open a domicilliary account and are not affected with exchange gain or loss and you can make purchases without your own money for the moment. These sort of cards are issued to those who have guaranteed sources of income such as a recognised job, company or other specified income sources and are regarded to have good credit history. Naira credit cards are actually the proper credit cards that can turn aroung the Nigerian economy for the better and in most cases requires only a savings or checking account as against a domicilliary account.

Foreign currency denominated credit card
This kind of credit card is popularly issued by most Nigerian banks and other providers and could be more properly referred to as prepaid credit cards. They are mainly dollar denominated credit cards which require a domicilliary account and are useable in ATMs within and outside the country. Although it is expected to be useful for online purchases on the internet, most foregn merhants or sellers decline doing business with the card users but it could be used to purchase things that can be easily delivered online like videos, mp3, domain names, web hosting and other intangible items. It can also be used on big reputable merchant websites like Amazon, Yahoo to buy books, magazines and DVDs. They also attract interest for a usage period and has a validity period.

Who needs a credit card
A credit card is not meant just for a few people but to anyone who need to use cash to make transactions and pay later for it in the future. This may include people like Employees, Managers, Companies and other persons. A credit card helps you to pay for something which you ordinarily would or could not pay for in the short term

Which banks or Providers offer credit card
Almost all the banks in Nigeria which includes;

Ecobank
Equitorial Trust bank
Zenith Bank
Union Bank of Nigeria
Fidelity Bank
GTB
UBA
Zenith
Intercontinental Bank,

and also the following providers;

gtn-ng.com,
graphcard.com
e-naira.com
naijacreditcards.com
connect2africa.com

Contacting any of the above providers would help you know what is required to get a credit card in Nigeria.

Credit cards and ATMs in Nigeria
Nigerian credit cards normally work in ATM machines just like regular ATM cards and you could use them both in Nigeria and abroad to withdraw funds from your account. Although the credit card may not work in all ATMs in Nigeria, you need to use it on olny those few ones which have been designated as accepting credit cards and display the Mastercard or Visa logo.

How to make money with a credit card
Although most people use credit cards to go for shopping both on and off the internet, it could as well be seen as a money maker and you could use your credit cards to buy stuffs like books from another part of the world and sell them in Nigeria. You could also use them to fund your Google adwords account to drive traffic to your Affiliate sites. Other ways one could use a credit card profitably is to trade in domain names, discounted bulk web hosting and adwords to adsense campaigns, forex trading e.t.c.