On The Protection Of Consumers' Rights And Interests Of Credit Cardholders

As a credit product, credit card is issued to the applicants by the bank, whichcharge a fixed fee and certain conditions of borrowing. Because of the convenienceof non-cash payment after consumption, and also can enjoy the grace period to repay,more and more consumers tend to use credit card to pay the goods or services, thiskind of payment not only speeds up the efficiency of the commodity transaction butalso stimulates the potential consumption, appointed store also benefit a lot. Drivenby many factors, the credit card industry in china is entering a rapid developmentstage.But at the same time, as the key point of the credit card transactions, cardholderhas not got enough attention and protection. Rights violation happened, such as thebank did not disclose corresponding information fully, which infringe uponcardholder’s right to know; personal ID information and transaction information wasleaked, which violate cardholder’s privacy; disputed with appointed store, cardholdercould not stop the bank paying to the store; in the cases of fake use of credit card,cardholder was taken unreasonable risk of responsibility. Compared with bank andappointed store, cardholder is in a disadvantaged position in the aspects of economicstrength contrast and understanding of financial knowledge and risk recognition.Profit from dominant position, bank shifts the risk to the cardholder by means offormat terms. But the current legal system of credit card is not perfect, there aremany obstacles exist in cardholder’s claim for legal rights and interests. But if theirrights and interests cannot get good protection, which not only affect thecardholder’s confidence to use card, but also destroy the fair order of market.This paper has discussed the protection of cardholder’s rights and interests infour parts. The first part is the overview of credit card, introduced the nature andkinds and function and so on; analyzed the legal relationship between parties ofcredit card business and found that a series of related contracts in transaction, such asthe contract between cardholder and bank, card issuer and appointed store,cardholder and appointed store; all contracts are independent as well as interdependent. The second part expounds the law and economics theory ofcardholder’s rights and interests, defined the cardholder’s financial consumer status,proposed that the relevant laws article should be different from protective provisionsof general consumers’ rights and interests.The third part discussed present situation of cardholder’s rights and interestsprotection in China, there are four rights easily to be violated, the right to know,privacy, counterargument, and fake use of credit card, also analyzed the reasons andperformance, discussed the legislative defects of existing law and the imbalance ofthe rights and obligations in the credit card institution design.The fourth part focused on violations of the cardholder’s rights and interests,through the introduction of foreign legislation experience, making recommendationson improving cardholder consumers’ rights and interests in the law making andinstitution design.