Growing Credit Card Market in China

Our topic this time on this blog is one which is of growing interest and importance for all levels in China: credit cards. Although debit cards are still more common in China, there are indeed huge business opportunity for credit card market expansion. We, Quick Money Saver, will show you more details about this in the following paragraphs.

In old days, privileges of deferred payment used to be enjoyed by comparatively few and the status this conferred marked the possessor of being a few rungs further up the financial and social ladder than the rest of mankind. Those days are already gone. Nowadays, anyone with a certain basic level of monthly income is eligible for a standard credit card. There are, of course, different types of credit cards available to meet different financial needs but, generally speaking, fundamental benefits offered by credit cards are open to more or less everybody now.

So what exactly are these fundamental benefits then? As QMS (Quick Money Saver), we just put it very simply: credit cards allow everyone, within certain specified limits, to pay for goods or services without any worry about having to pay real money for them immediately. Money is available to card holders 24 hours a day, but payment can be deferred until a time more convenient for the customer when he can either pay the total amount due, pay it off gradually over a set period of time or pay minimum payment only (thus any outstanding balance wil become a credit card loan and thus customer will need to pay for late financial charges).

For such widespread use and popularity of credit cards today, that in some parts of the world, they are replacing cash as a preferred form of daily payment. For the United States, as an example, it is indeed becoming virtually impossible to book a hotel room or hire a car without a credit card. A cashless society is not too far around the corner there.

Nevertheless, there are still variations in what many different banks and credit card companies offer their customers. They are: variations in service fees charges, in credit amount available and in interest rate charged etc. For many commercial banks in China, bankers offer their customers credit limit up to four times their monthly salary irrespective of whether they bank with the bankers or not. Many banking institutions even do no charge any application fee and offer very reasonable annual fees and minimum repayment requirements. Card holders can withdraw money easily from ATM (automatic teller machine) network, while repayment options can be flexible to fit with actual customer needs. Arrangement can also be made to include family of the customer in a combined account so that all can enjoy such benefits offered locally as well as in other locations worldwide.

We, Quick Money Saver, suggest you to try using facilities and services offered by your own bank as a guide to what the credit card market in general can offer. Obviously, each individual can choose one, or perhaps a number, to fit with her or her own financial circumstances. Whether or not that choice is one or more credit cards to be offered by your bank, it is very clear that credit cards are in growing demand inside PRC (People's Republic of China) and will become almost indispensable just like many other western countries.

This is, indeed, the age of plastic has about to come, especially as the size of middle-class is rapidly expanding within the emerging country. China population is so huge, economy growth is so strong and Chinese central government also has obvious policies to promote domestic consumption, we therefore believe that credit card market in China will unavoidably grow very fast soon.