Society

Farmers enjoys bank card payment services

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-07-05 19:21

TAIYUAN - A program initiated in April 2009 to give farmers in North Shanxi province bank card payment access has successfully covered 90 percent of the rural households in the province, according to a bank official.

Now farmers can simply swipe their cards, which have been distributed by the local branches of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), in a specially designed telephone to transfer money, said Cao Shaoxiong, president of the bank's Shanxi branch.

Cao said that as people in rural areas are enjoying a better living standards, they should also be provided with modern forms of payment.

Kou Xiulan, a farmer in the county of Shouyang, has purchased grain from neighboring villages for many years. In harvest seasons, she and her husband would have to pay a large amount of money in cash.

"Cash is difficult to count, and sometimes there are fake notes, and it's also unsafe to keep large amounts at home," Kou said. "Now, a bank card solves all problems."

Farmers can also use the card to buy daily necessities in convenience stores or pay for medicine in local clinics.

The bank is planning to issue a total of 100 million cards to rural households throughout the country, which will cover a rural population of around 400 million by the end of the year.