As someone who lived beyond their means in my younger years, got into financial problems and managed to drag myself out of it over a number of years, I have to strenuously agree with Kimwy on this. Taking on debt when you cannot afford to repay it will just compound and you'll just go further and further into debt, chasing to make payments, taking on new debt to pay off old debt etc....
Credit cards are useful, especially in HK because there are many deals to be had or points to earn but the interest rates on the balances are massive, especially compared to the UK. You should never advise someone to take on CC debt if they are not able to pay it off within the interest free period.