Originally Posted by
Ambraciot
It's not about points, it's about getting the money out of RMB at the current nominal exchange rate. It's a lot easier to pay a credit card bill than wire over a billion RMB out of the country for a private purchase.
Its not about either. There are capital outflow regulation in china. If memory serves, each personal can only bring out 50k/year. There are ways of doing more, but doing it for millions is troublesome not to mention using it for a widely publicized purchase might draw unwanted attention. Using a credit card for such a purchase is currently the standard way of overspending your capital outflow limit since you are technically not transferring the money out. You are paying an institution within the country.