A Study On The Credit Card Usage Behavior By College Students

The credit card industry in mainland China has gone through a 20 years' hibernation period. Most of the related studies focused on the qualitative analysis. The empirical research has not been paid much attention on the credit card consumer behavior in Chinese market. The dissertation therefore focuses on the usage phase of credit card consumer behavior, for the usage behavior definitely influence the issuing banks' income and the structure, and it may also affect cardholders' consuming pattern, financial healthy and money attitude.The dissertation is a pioneer of credit card behavior study in mainland China. Its empirical research design, framework and analysis methodology adopt the international criterion, and the target is college students, whose iifecycle and consumer behavior is right at the turning point. Based on the literature review of credit card usage behavior abroad and the consumer behavior domestically, the dissertation explore the Chinese mainland college students' "money style", credit card using and the influencing factors from different point of views, and construct the credit card usage behavior model. The study includes some innovation in the research design. It brings the notion of value into the framework, which is a representative of individual's need and ignored by the other researchers. With money attitude together, college students are divided into different money style clusters. Also, the lifecycle character of college students are not ignored, and we find that the consumer socialization does affect their attitude and behavior, dynamically. The money attitude and credit card attitude measuring instrument used in the dissertation are localized, which reliability and validity were tested by researchers abroad. As a practitioner, the writer designs the credit card using scales exploring the cardholders' intent and behavior deeply. As for the sample's selection, the dissertation considers both the horizontal regional and vertical age difference.The individuals' social, economical and cultural background influence the college students' value and money attitude, these two variables construct their money style. The intention of using internet banking and the attitude towards credit cards are tested significantly correlated with different money style significantly. More traditional and conservative in money style, more unfavorable credit card attitude the college students have; more confident in their ability and future, the corresponding attitudes are more favorable. It is tested that the favorable credit card attitudes and high intention of using innovative financial products are not only correlated with the acquisition of credit card, but also influence the usage activity of credit card's different functions. According to the credit card usage behavior of college students, the dissertation segments this market into five clusters. The five market segmentations use the credit card in significantly different ways, in which the mugwump has the highest proportion; they have favorable perception and high intention in credit card functions usage, but objectively not active user. The proportion of revolving activists is the lowest among the credit card holder on campus, which indicates that the whole consuming and money attitude among Chinese college students are still traditional and rational.The results give marketing hints to the commercial banks, who are involved in the competition of credit cards on campus. At the same time, suggestions are made to the related administer for founding policies to prevent the possible overspending of credit card by college students and the subsequent debt problem.