Which credit card do you find the best?

Which credit card do you find the best, as a woman? As a sports lover, which credit card serves you best?

Questions like these threw up the first credit cards rating by top Chinese credit card portal 51credit.com and Shanghai-based poll firm 51poll.com as they released the result of a three-month survey via Internet and telephone.

The rating came from the survey of 20,000 cardholders in more than 100 cities, according to Tu Zhiyun, CEO and founder¹ of 51credit.com.

China Merchants Bank (CMB), one of the best performing commercial banks and the largest card issuer in China, was rated the best in the general category for its popular dual-currency credit card.

Shanghai-based Pudong Development Bank was crowned the best in the platinum² card segment for successfully targeting high-end clients, thanks to its close cooperation with Citibank.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, topped the rating in the co-branded bracket for its card issued in association with China National Petroleum³ Corporation, China's largest oil company.

Several others got the top honors as the best credit card for women, travel, sports and best design.

The total number of credit cards in China is around 30 million, compared with 500 million in the United States.

The growing wealth of the Chinese people has added allure⁴ to the credit card business. The number of credit cards issued is expected to double in 2007.

However, most banks are losing money in their credit card businesses as a large portion of the cards have apparently⁵ never been used since they were issued.

CMB is currently the only commercial bank to have made a profit in the segment.

The bank said the circulation of its dual-currency credit card reached 10 million by the end of 2006, a jump of 100 percent from 2005, and accounted for 35 percent of the credit card market in China.