Before this announcement, payments allowed were up to 300 or 500 yuan only for each transaction. The payment for higher amounts would require multiple transactions by the cardholders. Now, payments for big purchases can be completed in just one transaction. Six participating banks are currently supporting this payment service, such as: Bank of Communications, China merchants Bank, Guangdong Development Bank, China Everbright Bank, and Bank of China.

Alipay said that about 3,000 vendors of Taobao, its sister company, have been approved to transact big-amount credit card payments. The approved vendors were selected based on Alipay?s strict standards . The vendors? trading payment records were also evaluated by Alipay?s risk control department. The service also avoided the high-risk items such as jewelry and virtual goods.

Like the usual credit card programs, online payments also have equivalent points that card holder can use to redeem some items specified by the credit card company.

Alipay added that they expect more banks, such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank to participate in the service.

Alipay customers can securely fund their payments through credit cards, or wire transfer and online transfer from their existing banks.

Source : Konaxis