Alipay, the Internet payment subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, has announced that it will lift the limit on large credit card payments.

Prior to this move, the credit card payment amount of many banks was limited to CNY300 or CNY500 for each transaction and people who wanted to buy expensive products needed to complete the payment with multiple transactions. After the limit is lifted, credit card holders will be able to complete the purchase with one payment. At present, six banks, including Bank of Communications, Guangdong Development Bank, Bank of China, China Everbright Bank, Industrial Bank, and China Merchants Bank, can support this service.

According to Alipay, about 3,000 vendors of its sister company Taobao.com have been approved to accept large-scale credit card payments. Alipay said it has strict standards for the selection of vendors and its risk control department will analyze the detailed trading records and statistics to evaluate these vendors. In addition, high-risk industries such as virtual goods and jewelry will not be included in this new service.

Like general credit card payments, the online large-scale credit card payments can also gain points for the exchange of gifts.

Alipay revealed that more banks, including China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, will soon participate in this service and the service will cover most of the credit card issuing banks in China by the end of 2009.