Consumers who are slow to pay their phone bills in northeast China's Jilin Province may find their bank manager reticent about approving a loan application.

Six telecom companies in Jilin have given local banks access to consumer payment information, according to the Beijing News on Monday.

Consumers who are two months late in paying their phone bills without good reason will find the details uploaded into a bank credit database, which can then influence a bank's decision about whether or not to grant these consumers a loan, said the report.

China's central bank has been striving to improve banks' loan performance by tracking the credit histories of borrowers.

The credit database, initiated in January 2006, contains credit information about 530 million people and tens of thousands of enterprises.

The database keeps track of people's loan and credit card payments, as well as tax, mortgage and utility payments. It also records information about an individual's investments in the social security fund and public housing fund.

Adding phone bill payment information to the database will encourage ordinary people to become more aware of their creditworthiness status, said Su Ning, deputy governor of China's central bank.

In Jilin, commercial banks access the database 30,000 times a month. About three percent of firms and up to 10 percent of individuals applying for loans have been turned down after the database revealed lacklustre credit ratings, the report said.

But a report by China Central Television (CCTV) argued that some customers have refused to pay phone bills because the charges were wrong.

Telecom companies have been accused of using questionable methods to calculate call times and also of overcharging. Payment default records should therefore be screened before being added to the bank database to protect customers, CCTV said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)