The rational usage of credit cards in consumer finance: a sample of Bilecik city

The main subject of this study, a consumer finance instrument that findscommonly usage area today, is credit cards. In this study, credit cards are investigatedin detail by examining various aspects of the credit card in the world and Turkey'sstatus over the years. Then, credit card system, the concerned parties in the system,operation of the system, positive and negative effects of credit card system to relatedparties and some consumer finance applications related to credit cards were examined.Credit cards are important tools to simplify shopping without cash but when usedunconsciously, they may burden with debt consumers and could adversely affect thestandard of living. Therefore, the studies which aimed to raise the consumer awarenessabout the cost of credit cards usage has been rising in importance. In this context, fordraw attention to importance of the issue, in this study at first status and problems ofthe card payment system in Turkey are examined briefly. Then rational use of creditcard is examined from the point of the view that the fulfillment frequency of cardholder's responsibilities for not get in to excessive debt and to take into considerationthe rational usage of credit cards different factors that may affect the rationality arestudied. These factors consist of confidence to the credit cards, spending habits,perception about the informative banking services for credit cards, money attitude anddemographic characteristics. For this purpose, the data obtained with credit card usagesurvey conducted in Bilecik were analyzed and the analyze results show that rationalusage is substantially influenced from these factors and the assumptions of the studyare reasonable.