Consumers spend more money on credit card installment charging routines

　　News from our newspaper (Reporter Liu Youting) declared interest-free, but the actual annualized interest rate is generally above 15%, and some are as high as 18.25%; the actual annualized rate and the cancellation of installment, early repayment regulations and other important information disclosures are not perfect; consumers Early repayment will be charged all the remaining handling fees at once, that is, even if consumers pay off the installment principal in advance, they still need to bear the remaining handling fees... Credit card installment business is the main battlefield of banking business innovation, for card holders People provide a wealth of choices.

However, a reporter from the Workers' Daily found that there are many credit card installment charging routines, which makes consumers spend a lot of wronged money.

　　Recently, the Shenzhen Consumer Council, in conjunction with the Shenzhen Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and the Shenzhen Banking Promotion Association, has aimed at the two credit card installment services of bill installment and cash installment, simulating the consumption scenarios of ordinary consumers on the official websites and mobile apps of 10 banks. Two in-depth investigations have been conducted on whether there is any unclear information in the public information.

The investigation found that the credit card installment business of some banks has three types of problems, such as interest-free publicity and imperfect information disclosure.

　　Industry insiders told reporters that banks usually charge a certain amount of interest or handling fees for credit card installment services. Consumers who encounter banks advertise that credit cards are free of interest must be clear about the specific meaning.

Because interest-free does not mean free, there may be fees such as handling fees.

　　In order to protect the rights and interests of consumers, the Shenzhen Consumer Council and the Shenzhen Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau have recently promoted the 10 major banks to rectify the issue of credit card installments nationwide.

Up to now, all 10 banks have completed rectifications on the three types of issues, including strengthening the disclosure of important information such as actual annualized fee rates; canceling the requirement that early repayments collect all remaining fees at one time; and deleting " Misleading slogans such as "Interest Free".

　　After verification by the Shenzhen Consumer Council, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, etc. have improved the disclosure of the actual annualized rate of credit card installment business on the official website; Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Minsheng Bank, etc. Improved the disclosure of important information such as the cancellation of installment and early repayment rules; China Construction Bank, China Postal Savings Bank, and Ping An Bank for early repayment for consumers, from the original one-time charge for all remaining instalments, modified to be exempt The remaining handling fee may only charge a certain percentage of liquidated damages; the Agricultural Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China, and China Minsheng Bank have deleted "interest-free" and "the ratio of handling fees does not increase with the increase in the number of installments" that may easily cause consumers to misunderstand slogan.

　　The Consumer Council of Shenzhen reminds consumers that when handling credit card installment services, they should fully understand their charging standards and focus on the actual annualized rate disclosed by banks to understand the true cost of installment services.

At the same time, we must pay special attention to terms that are of great interest to ourselves, such as time limit and cost.

For example, you should carefully read the contract clauses involving handling fees, liquidated damages calculations, and integrate your own repayment ability, and rationally choose the installment business that suits your own conditions.

When necessary, consumers can ask the bank for confirmation, and pay attention to saving evidence during the use of credit cards for subsequent rights protection needs.

Liu Youting

Liu Youting