While 77.6 percent of the 500 people surveyed have heard of consumption loans, less than 10 percent have actually had one.

"Lots of people complained about either high service charges or the complicated procedures involved," said Zhang Xueyuan, an official with the bureau.

For example, many commercial banks demand a series of financial certificates ensuring the loan applicants' capacity to pay, in addition to mortgages.

Many of those surveyed do not plan to use consumption loans in next four years, "if related bank services remain the same."

Almost 45 percent of those interviewed said with decisiveness that they would not consider consumption loans in the near future, while 32.8 percent said they would "wait and see."

Only 13.4 percent of those that replied positively said they would consider consumption loans.

When asked what they would use their consumption loans on first, the most given answers were housing, education, cars, medicare and travel, in that order.

Housing remains the top choice of those who have used consumption loans. The survey shows that 62.5 percent of those surveyed bought homes with consumption loans, while 33.3 percent used the loan for credit cards and 16.7 percent for cars.

Zhang said the tendency to borrow more is natural, because the fundamental reasons people are drawn to credit consumption is "convenience and lack of cash at that moment."

"After the reform of the welfare housing system that started in 1998, buying housing has become widely accepted in Beijing, making it one essential expenditure in local people's life," said Zhang.

Another survey of the bureau indicates that over half of the local people have bought their own housing, and another 40 percent plan to do so in the near future.

"With a per capita annual income of a little more than US$3,000, getting a loan is necessary for a larger proportion of local families to fulfill the goal," said Zhang.

As for their choice of bank, 94 percent of those surveyed had domestic banks as their primary choice, because the foreign ones are "too strange and not convenient."

The survey results for Beijing should not give a pessimistic picture of credit consumption in China, said Li Binbin, a marketing consultant with the Beijing-based Feng & Associates Marketing Services Ltd.

She cited an investigation by her company, which found that Beijing residents are actually the most conservative when it comes to credit consumption.

(China Daily September 23, 2002)