Just yesterday we told you that Pakistan ranks in top five nations with freelancers. To be more precise, Pakistan stands 4th on Elance.com and fifth on oDesk for all the freelance work that is done on these websites.
Pakistanis’ presence isn’t limited to these two platforms only, in fact they manage to out-shine at all sorts of online markets. We recently reported about a Pakistani who managed to make over a million dollar out of just one theme that he sells on Themeforest, a marketplace for WordPress themes. And that’s one tiny example out of countless other un-told stories about the freelancers in Pakistan.
Then there are bloggers, social media experts, and countless other professionals who choose to conveniently work from their homes.
All these freelancers, bloggers and entrepreneurs, that help the national economy by bringing millions of dollars of foreign currency into Pakistan each month, are denied by Pakistani banks the provision of credit cards.
Not to mention, we bloggers, freelancers badly need these credit cards for buying things (hosting/services) online that help us doing our businesses. Or let me put this in other words, freelancers and bloggers can’t do their businesses without these services that they buy online with credit cards.
Banks argue that one must have an office address and a home address to be able to comply with credit card issuance policy. They tell us that State Bank of Pakistan asks them to do so.
Who ever the responsible is or who ever is just overlooking this very serious issue, ultimately its the freelancers and bloggers who suffer. Not to mention, not every freelancer is resourceful (especially in the start) to have payment solutions in place without having the credit cards. I have personally shared my credit card with countless fellow bloggers to get them hosting accounts or domain renewals.
Now if Pakistan — I am talking about the government — wants us to help the economy then we should be provided with the tools that help us achieve our targets. If they want the freelancers to get them the top dollar without payment gateway, without credit cards then its a pity, its a shame for the government, or the banks or our financial system.
I just don’t know who will end this current policy, but it has to end and there should be a revision in policy for issuing credit cards.
Please note: Yes we know that Standard Chartered debit cards work online, but they fail to get the reimbursed funds, in case of refund. Moreover, there are certain services that accept just credit cards and not the debit cards just because of this very problem.