How to apply for an international credit card in Bhutan?

If you're planning to become a serious blogger with your own purchased domain name, hosting and other ancillary web-related services, internationally accepted credit card is necessary for you. It saves you from hassles of unnecessary banking procedures at the time of making payment for domain, hosting and other plugins. You can do online payment based on your credit-ability.

It's not only for serious bloggers. It is also helpful for people who have habit of purchasing things online. 

In Bhutan, Bank of Bhutan Ltd (BOBL) and Bhutan National Bank Ltd (BNBL) issue internationally accepted credit cards which they call as Gold Visa Credit Cards.

You can apply for such credit card with a credit guarantee made either on your salary (provident fund, insurance balance etc) and owned assets (land, building, vehicle etc.)

This means if you aren't a salaried person or a person having some fixed assets, bank won't issue Gold Visa Credit Card. You must remember it's just like applying for a loan. 

However, if you have someone who is your relative holding such credit, you can request him or her to accept you as a secondary cardholder. Bank will accept this provided you can pay the credit amount used from your card. 

But the maximum credit amount will be equivalent to USD 1,000 per year for each credit card account. You can create a saving account with that bank and apply for a secondary card. 

If your application gets accepted and issuance of such card is being processed by the bank, you have to pay the following to the bank:

• Nu.3,000 (principal card)
• Nu.1,500 (secondary card) 

The above is card processing fees at the time of issuing the card for the first time. Once the card is issued and is active, if you still intends to renew them, the respective renewal fees are:

• Nu.2,000 (principal card)
• Nu.1,500 (secondary card)

Bank of Bhutan Ltd (BOBL), to commemorate the 60th birth anniversary of fourth king, they are offering 50% discount. This means principal cardholder needs to pay only Nu.1,500 and secondary cardholder only Nu.750. But this offer is valid only before closing of 2015 year. 

The financial implications of using credit facility by both principal cardholder and secondary cardholder are:

• If the credit exceeds USD 1,000 in a year, USD 10 per transaction will be charged.
• In every transaction, 1% of transacted amount or USD 5 whichever is higher should be paid to the bank.
• Interest rate is 1.5% per month. 
• Credit amount should be paid within due date. Otherwise 18% interest will be charged.
• The due date is on or before 25th of the next month of the credit acquired month

Once all the procedures are completed, you'll be asked by the card issuing bank to sign an agreement. You'll then receive credit card. You're then allowed to use the credit facility. 

Note: Inquire Bhutan National Bank Ltd & Bank of Bhutan Ltd for more detailed information.