Mr. Zhang has a credit card of P Bank. Recently, he inadvertently discovered that there were two large-scale purchases that had "installment repayment", and he had to pay more than 300 yuan a month, but he couldn’t remember when he started the automatic installment business. The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that there are still many credit card customers like Mr. Zhang, and the banks involved are far more than one P bank. Some customers have even been "phased" for more than 7 years before they found out that the handling fee paid has reached 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.
Are these banks really opening installment repayment business for customers without authorization? Why didn’t the customer find it in time? Is the bank’s behavior illegal? Recently, the reporter of Beiqing Daily conducted an investigation.
phenomenon
Customers complain that credit cards are "automatically phased"
In the black cat complaint platform and major bank card forums, customers who claim to be "automatically phased by banks" can be seen everywhere.
Mr. Zhang mentioned above has credit cards from several banks, and this card of Bank P used to be a small amount of consumption, and no problems were found. Recently, he used this card to make two large purchases, one is 10,000 yuan, and the other is 3,000 yuan. Soon, he received a short message from the bank, saying that both purchases were successfully applied for free installment payment, and he had to pay more than 300 yuan a month. However, Mr. Zhang has no impression of the opening of "automatic staging".
In early August, Miss Zhang, a customer of H Bank, made a consumption of 99,888 yuan. Later, she found that there was an automatic handling fee of 12 installments in the bill of the month, each installment was 749.16 yuan, and the amortization principal of each installment was 8,324 yuan. After the 12 installments were completed, the handling fee was nearly 9,000 yuan, and the annualized interest rate was 9%. Miss Zhang remembers that when she first set up this card, the staff told her that it was an ordinary credit card, which did not mean that the card would be automatically divided into stages on the billing date, and she herself did not take the initiative to apply later. Miss Zhang believes that the bank opened the automatic installment business for her without authorization, just to "make more money".
Mr. Zhao, a customer of X Bank, applied for a credit card in September 2020. After paying the bill in early December, he didn’t use this card again. Later, he found that there was still repayment every month. When he inquired about the bill, he found that the original banking system had carried out 12 automatic installments, but he had no impression of applying for this business.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily found that in addition to the three banks mentioned above, some customers of G Bank and Z Bank have also encountered the situation of being inexplicably "phased", and the most complaints are P Bank.
survey
Did the bank open the business without authorization?
So many customers complain that they have been "phased". Is the bank really so bold?
Many insiders told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that according to the regulatory requirements and the bank’s own internal regulations, it is definitely impossible for the bank to open this business without the consent or authorization of the customer. From a practical point of view, many customers have checked the relevant options when they apply for a card, or made relevant representations when they received a marketing call or text message from the bank, but they forgot it after a long time; It is also possible that the customer misunderstood the meaning of the terms or the expression of the staff when communicating. In the past few years, the credit card business management of some banks was not standardized. It is not excluded that some salesmen deliberately concealed important information to induce customers, and even checked the "automatic installment" option on the application form for customers in violation of regulations.
Mr. Xu, a customer of P Bank, met such a salesman. At the end of 2014, the credit card salesman of Bank P went to the place where Mr. Xu worked to sell credit cards. In recent years, Mr. Xu has paid directly on Alipay or WeChat, never looking at the bank’s electronic bills, let alone finding out the details. Until March of this year, Mr. Xu felt that the repayment amount was not in line with the consumption situation. After checking the bill, he found that Bank P had charged him nearly 47,000 yuan in installment business fees in recent years. Shocked, Mr. Xu called the credit card center to ask for a refund, but was told that when he applied for a card in 2014, he checked the free installment function on the paper application materials, and a single purchase over 800 yuan was automatically repaid in six installments. Mr. Xu said that after seven years, he couldn’t remember whether it was checked by the salesman or painted by himself. But what is certain is that I don’t know anything about free staging.
According to the reporter of Beiqing Daily, from the feedback from the bank, there are still some controversial customers who actively apply for the automatic installment business on the App, but they all said that they don’t remember checking it on the App.
Su Xiaorui, a senior analyst at Analysys, pointed out that credit card holders usually don’t read the terms carefully, and the bank staff didn’t tell the relevant business information in detail. In this case, cardholders are easily "cheated" and passively choose installment business. In addition, some banks put key information in inconspicuous places, and cardholders sometimes ignore the installment fee for checking monthly bills, which are also factors that trigger consumer disputes.
question
Liquidated damages will be paid for termination of installment prepayment.
After customers find that they have been inexplicably opened the automatic installment business, they will generally take the initiative to complain to the bank, demand a refund of the fees received, and demand that the business be stopped. However, it is not easy to cancel this business. Many banks require that certain fees must be paid, and at the same time, they must be audited.
For example, Bank P stipulates that after a cardholder successfully applies for free installment payment, the number and amount of installments he has applied for cannot be changed and cannot be revoked. If the cardholder applies for early repayment, the cardholder must repay all the remaining undistributed installment principal in one lump sum, and the handling fee corresponding to the remaining undistributed installment number is not required to be paid. The handling fee collected in one lump sum will be refunded to the handling fee corresponding to the remaining undistributed installment number, and the bank will collect 3% of the undistributed principal amount of the cardholder as a penalty. The liquidated damages collected for early repayment and the undistributed principal amount will be fully included in the minimum repayment amount of the next bill.
Mr. Liu, a customer of X Bank, set up a credit card a few years ago. Now the monthly consumption exceeds 5,000 yuan, and the bank directly handles the 12-month installment. He called and said that he would pay in advance, and learned that he would have to pay 3% penalty. Mr. Liu said angrily: "Don’t you need to inform the customer for staging? If you have to pay liquidated damages in advance, will this overlord clause be left unattended? "
Supervision
Some banks were severely punished for illegal installment business.
Of course, the chaos existing in the credit card installment business is taken care of. The regulatory authorities have noticed the irregularities of some banks and increased the punishment.
On July 7th this year, the Consumer Protection Bureau of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China issued a circular on the infringement of consumers’ rights and interests by a bank. The circular pointed out that a bank has six kinds of illegal and illegal problems, such as checking the initial amount of automatic installment of credit cards by default.
According to the circular, since March 2015, this bank has launched the "Lixiang Card" credit card business, and the initial amount of automatic installment is divided into three grades, namely 5,000 yuan, 10,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan. Since March 2019, in order to increase the income of credit card installment business, the bank has adjusted the automatic installment starting amount of "Lixiang Card" to "3,000 yuan by default", and customers cannot choose other installment starting amounts when they apply for a card. However, according to the regulations of the bank, customers can modify the starting amount of automatic installment through the customer service hotline, but they are not prompted in the application form and online channel application page. By the end of June 2020, the bank had issued 45,400 "Lixiang Cards" with an initial amount of 3,000 yuan, involving installment income of 35,736,400 yuan.
A few days ago, the bank that was criticized by name issued the Announcement on Suspension of Customers’ Application for Automatic Staging Business by Credit Card. Since August 31, 2021, customers have been suspended from applying for automatic staging business in various channels.
Dong Zheng, a senior bank card expert, believes that installment business is an important component of bank credit card business income, which can not only stimulate consumption, ease the financial pressure on users, but also increase the intermediate income of banks, and has been paid more and more attention by banks recently. However, at present, banks are overexerting in the marketing of installment business, and there are still some defects in the service level, especially in the communication with customers and how to guide users to handle it, which need further standardization.
Text/Reporter Cheng Wei Coordinator/Yu Meiying
Photo courtesy/vision china
point out
Consumers should look carefully at the card terms and monthly bills.
In the interview, the reporter of Beiqing Daily found that a considerable number of cardholders not only did not read the terms carefully when handling the card, but also did not check the bills in detail every month after using the card, so that it took many years to discover that they were "phased". In view of this phenomenon, people in the industry generally believe that consumers themselves should take the initiative to strengthen their understanding and management of credit cards, especially pay attention to terms such as fees, interest rates and repayment methods, so as to effectively reduce the occurrence of such disputes.
Su Xiaorui, a senior analyst at Analysys, pointed out that cardholders must first understand that credit cards are truly free only if they are fully repaid during the interest-free period, and other charging methods should be paid special attention; At the same time, don’t handle staging for the so-called staging gifts and staging concessions, but handle them according to your own needs.
