Booming prepaid consumption riddled with pitfalls

To have a haircut in a beauty salon in Beijing used to be a very enjoyable experience. For the equivalent of $10-15, you'd be pampered by a stylish cut with wash and blow-dry, and soothed by a shoulder massage.

Nowadays you may still get these services for the price, but only if you hold your purse strings tight and don't allow your pleasure-seeking self to prevail over disciplined self. Most likely, a cheap haircut will lead to expenditures worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars, as you're cajoled into buying a prepaid card that most beauty salons offer.

Marketing of the plastics often starts as soon as a new customer settles into a chair and lasts through the haircut sessions. Stylists and their assistants will educate the customer about the necessity of expensive hair care and massage therapy. The customer will be urged to take advantage of their services at special discount rates from 10 to 40 percent depending on the amount of their prepayments. For the regular customer, the exhortations will focus on top-ups and purchasing new promotions.