Striking the right balance

A boom in online pay-by-credit services may be helping to fuel growth in China's consumer sector, but the system is not without its pitfalls. Zhang Zefeng reports.

Sun Yukun finally put the lock back on the Pandora's box she had opened after an impulsive shopping spree, which landed her in debt and deprived her of financial freedom for more than six months.

It all started when she used a pay-by-credit service, a virtual credit card that gives users a consumption quota to fulfill their spending impulses.