Mothership Condemned for Misleading Readers Into Taking On Potential Bad Debts

Mothership.sg recently published an article about a millennial who owns a total of 12 credit cards and debit cards. According to this millennial, her objective of taking on these 12 cards was to “save more money while (she) spend.”

The millennial claims she was able to receive numerous free perks and gifts as a result of her spending or meeting certain credit card requirements. However what the article hides is the amount of money needed to be “borrowed” or spent before perks such as travel miles can be earned. This misleading information has drawn the ire of netizens.

Fortunately Singaporeans are financially savvy enough to understand that most of these credit card perks or cashback can only be redeemed through spending. So it runs contrary to Mothership’s fake news about saving more money when in actual fact credit card holders may unknowingly be forced to spend more.

Some netizens feel Mothership’s clickbait article is irresponsible gutter journalism. Misinformed individuals may end up signing up for multiple credit cards, overspend thinking that they can “save more”, lose track of their payments and credit card annual fees, etc. If such spending spirals out of control, such individuals will end up with bad debts.

It is certainly reckless of Mothership to promote an article which suggests taking on more credit cards, especially in a time when many Singaporeans are going through the economic uncertainty caused by the Covid19 pandemic.

The PAP stooge of a media company should have published a more ethical article.