The first credit card in China was the BOC Card, a regional credit card issued by Zhuhai Credit Card Co., Ltd., a credit card operating company established by the Zhuhai Branch of the Bank of China, in March 1985.

The BOC card at that time was just an embossed character card with a brown strip on the back similar to a magnetic stripe, but it was not a magnetic stripe. Later, with the introduction of magnetic stripe technology, around 1987, the magnetic stripe on the back of the BOC card began to have magnetic records and became a true magnetic stripe card.