When looking for an intermediary to apply for a loan, consumers must "see four" (new perspective)
A few days ago, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Risk Alert on Vigilance Against Illegal Acts of Loan Intermediaries", pointing out that there are some illegal intermediaries in the loan market who fake the name of the bank, and use the false propaganda of formal institutions, unsecured, unsecured, low-interest free, and white-washed credit investigation. The slogan of inducing consumers to take out loans.
Behind these attractive conditions are traps such as high fees and loan scams.
These illegal acts have violated the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and disrupted the market order.
Not long ago, Ms. Zhong, a citizen of Chengdu, found a nearby business service company because she needed money for decoration.
The staff of the company claim to be the bank's direct loan center, not an intermediary institution, and will not charge service fees, only 8‰ of the risk fee.
Ms. Zhong quickly handled a loan of 200,000 yuan under her guidance.
After the loan was released, the company asked Ms. Zhong to transfer 60,000 yuan to a decoration company on the grounds that the bank checked the decoration flow.
Ms. Zhong made the transfer as required, but when she wanted to return the money that was "off the account", the other party insisted that it was a "service fee" and would not be refunded.
To meet the differentiated financing needs of customers, banks have launched a wide variety of loan products in recent years.
Since various products are applicable to different customer qualifications, approval efficiency, interest rate, cycle, and repayment method, some customers cannot make the best choice during the loan application process, and some cannot pass the review because they do not understand the loan process. .
In this case, intermediaries that provide consulting agency services emerge as the times require.
However, some intermediaries pretend to be banks and set traps such as high fees and loan scams on consumers.
The relevant person in charge of the Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and industry insiders introduced some common methods used by illegal intermediaries, reminding consumers to keep their eyes open and beware of being deceived.
One of these scams is similar to what happened to Ms. Zhong. After the intermediary agency tricked consumers into applying for a loan, they asked the borrower to transfer the loan funds into a designated account under various names. Funds are mostly withheld in the name of "service fees", making it difficult for borrowers to get their money back.
There are also some illegal intermediaries who pretend to be professional and operate on behalf of customers. They use customers' mobile phones to download bank mobile clients to help customers enter information, verify identities, and confirm loan information.
After the business is processed, the intermediary personnel will delete all the mobile clients and short messages of the loan banks involved, so that the customers know nothing about the loan-related information.
How to tell if a loan intermediary is legitimate?
Industry insiders reminded that it is best to "see four".
Look at the "portal" - industry insiders said that loan intermediaries have fixed offices. After consumers go to the company, they can pay attention to inquiring about industrial and commercial registration and other information to understand the basic situation of the company.
Consumers should avoid contacting intermediaries only through the Internet, and formal institutions will not only publish their online contact information such as WeChat and QQ.
Look at the qualifications - pay attention to the qualifications of the funded institutions.
Formal loan intermediary cooperative institutions are often formal banks or financial institutions with lending qualifications approved by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
If intermediaries blindly recommend online loans with unknown circumstances to customers, consumers should take precautions.
Look at the fees - when a formal intermediary handles loan business for customers, it will first sign a loan intermediary service fee contract with the customer.
After the customer loan business is processed, the loan service fee will be charged.
If the borrower is required to transfer money in advance on the grounds of "margin" and "unfreeze fee" before taking out a loan, consumers should be vigilant to avoid being deceived.
Look at the contract - The Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission reminds consumers to understand the content of the intermediary service contract in detail, not to believe in indirect loan service offers, and to be alert to the promotion of lowering the loan threshold and concealing the actual interest and fee standards in the loan marketing promotion.
Consumers also need to understand important information about loan products, fully understand loan conditions, comprehensive interest costs, repayment requirements, etc.
Be wary of requests for payment based on the grounds of "swiping the water" and "taking out the account", and do not arbitrarily transfer money to unrelated accounts.
Our reporter Qu Xinming