Chatting with Carl

I received a phone call tonight that I want to share with you. But before I can share about the phone call, I have to give you a little bit of background information. 

Credit cards seem to work slightly differently here. First of all, they're rather hard to get if you're a foreigner. Which is actually probably true in just about every country. But credit cards in Korea come with all sorts of benefits. You can get discounts and points and rewards and gift cards and who knows what else... It is also significantly easier to shop online, which I've been doing more and more of lately. Basically, milk, bread, eggs and some meats and produce is about all I buy at the store anymore. I get the rest of it online. It's a major pain and a multi-day process to get money transferred into the correct accounts to shop online without a credit card. Debit cards generally don't work. 

About six weeks ago, a middle aged Korean man walked into my office. He worked for Citi Bank Korea, and he wanted to offer a credit card to the foreign professors. I was a little suspicious at first, but my office mates all knew him, so I went ahead and signed up. He was quite persistent. He had three credit cards he was offering, and he wanted me to sign up for all three of them. I was quite sure that I didn't want three credit cards. So then he suggested that I sign up for the highest level super platinum airline benefits card. I definitely didn't want that. There was a card that let you get discounts at the grocery store I shop at, and several restaurants and coffee shops. I was interested in that one. After a good 20 minutes of back and forth (and me getting very frustrated that the man wouldn't listen to me) we finally got everything taken care of. My card came in the mail, and it has made my life easier in all of the anticipated ways. I thought I had heard the last of Carl and his aggressive sales tactics. Then my phone rang. 

I normally don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the number, just because wrong numbers and telemarketers and such are SO stressful to try to deal with in Korean. But since it was 8:00 pm on Sunday night, I figured there was no possible way it could be someone who didn't personally know me. I was partially right. The conversation went something like this:

Sarah: Hello?

Carl: silence

S: Hello?

C: Hello. How are you Sarah? (said a Korean man's voice).

S: (A little freaked out because I don't recognize the voice, but it obviously knows me) I'm fine. 

C: This is Carl. 

S: (drawing a blank)...

C:Credit card.

S: (drawing a blank)...

C: From Citi.

S: (realization dawns, and with it a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach) Oh, hello.

C: I'm with Lotte* now. I can give you a Lotte card. 

Carl then proceeded to explain to me all of the benefits that came with a Lotte card and how they were so much better than a Citi credit card. I kept trying to explain to Carl that I was just fine with the Citi cards that I had, and I really didn't want another one. I really didn't want another three. I really didn't want any more credit cards at all, in Korea or America, actually. I finally managed to convince Carl that I wasn't going to bite, and we awkwardly said goodbye. The goodbyes were going quite well, until Carl said "Ok, I'll see you in your office" just before he hung up. Hopefully he'll come when I'm in class, or on a day I'm not there!

*For my readers not in Korea, Lotte (low-tay) is a rather large corporation here that does pretty much everything. Like Wal*Mart or Tesco times about 10. Apparently in addition to grocery stores, department stores, food manufacturing, fast food chains, and imports/exports, they offer credit cards.