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It seems in China people use their cellphone to pay everything these days, credit/debit card are becoming old-fashion and meaningless there. Hope one day we can
by ausjke 9y ago
It seems in China people use their cellphone to pay everything these days, credit/debit card are becoming old-fashion and meaningless there. Hope one day we can do it here.
For mortgage and car loans you do not need credit card either.
So we can just give up credit card totally. We do need a new way to build people's credit scores somehow though.
- MuffinFlavored 9y agoAren't their cell phones just linked to credit cards?
- Cerium 9y agoNo. Credit cards are fairly uncommon in China. Most people link an ATM card and load a balance into their WeChat account.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mbreese 9y agoI'm not sure how this works in China, but credit reporting isn't exclusively about credit cards (but that is probably the most common component). It's about anything that would involve extending credit - mortgages, car loans, personal loans, paying for a cell phone monthly, etc... So, just because credit cards aren't common in China, doesn't mean that there isn't some other equivalent tracking going on... (although, I don't know any specifics).
- takeda 9y agoPP means that in China, and actually majority places, people don't purchase daily needs on credit. Yes people still need credit, and typically a government branch keeps track this kind of information.
- eurticket 9y agoIt would be great all up until the signal is lost from a natural disaster causing widespread power failures[1] and all your money is linked to a slowly draining phone. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/us/puerto-rico-shortages-cash.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/us/puerto-rico-shortages-...
- bspn 9y agoHaving a credit/debit card in that situation wouldn't help you either. If power is down, then so are the payment terminals and likely also the ATMs. Cash is the only option in that scenario and the prepared take cash out in advance, which you can do with either a card or mobile phone in many countries these days.
- cujic9 9y agoI think you are a bit confused. Credit cards only matter to Equifax and other credit scoring companies because of the "instant loan" that they give to a consumer. The banks that issue credit cards want to know if the consumer will pay back that loan. As long as consumers can get instant loans through some kind of mechanism (credit card, phone, pinky swear, etc.) there will be a role for credit scores and the companies that generate them.