Home
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Shanghai sorting out a sustainable future
Rural tourism: Success depends on more than just green fields and a nostalgic idyll
Sunday
- Subscribe
Protection for prepaid card customers
Print Edition
ALMOST 40 companies in the Pudong New Area have registered the prepaid cards they issue to customers and placed deposits as security.
This is part of efforts by local commerce authorities to tackle problems with businesses selling customers prepaid cards, then suddenly closing down.
A total of 38 companies have registered prepaid cards, said the commerce commission of Pudong.
“Commercial prepaid cards are conducive to boosting consumption, but there are many problems,” said Qian Huigang, chief of the commission’s marketing department.
Qian said 70 percent of complaints the department received were related to prepaid cards.
Consumers complained that some companies — often beauty and hair salons or fitness clubs — sold them cards then closed overnight.
Last month, Huoli Wuxian Fitness Center in Pudong shut down without warning, leaving members in the lurch — and out of pocket.
The owner is reportedly still missing with the cash.
The Ministry of Commerce last year introduced regulations on prepaid cards, requiring card issuers to register and put down cash deposits to go toward compensating consumers.
Under the regulations, card issuers with revenue of more than 5 million yuan (US$824,715) in the previous fiscal year and issuers with a registered capital of 1 million yuan and operating less than one year should put 20 percent of funds they received in advance in the previous quarter into a deposit fund.
However, the vast majority of businesses are apparently unaware of this regulation, as more than 500 prepaid card issuers in Pudong have not yet signed up to the scheme, said officials.
The commission said it plans to introduce punitive measures to help enforce registration and create a blacklist of problem prepaid card issuers.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
