Why are small merchants still keen on personal collection codes?

　　"WeChat received 14.9 yuan", "Alipay received 8.5 yuan"... On May 22, as usual, Master Guo was busy at a pastry stall in a vegetable market in Beijing.

Whenever a customer scans the code to pay, the voice broadcast of Master Guo's mobile phone will sound.

He said that he has been running this pastry stall for nearly 20 years, and has applied for a personal collection code since he knew how to collect money with a QR code.

However, recently, "whether to change the code" has become a problem that once troubled Master Guo.

　　The "Notice of the People's Bank of China on Strengthening the Management of Payment Acceptance Terminals and Related Businesses" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") stipulates that "for individuals with obvious business activity characteristics, they shall be provided with special merchants' collection barcodes, and shall not use personal collection barcodes. To provide them with collection services related to business activities”.

The "Notice" came into effect on March 1 this year.

　　Looking at the media reports that "personal collection barcodes cannot be used for business collections", Master Guo felt helpless: "My personal collection code has been used for so many years, it is very convenient, the handling fee is only 0.1%, and The money received is usually used for purchase, daily consumption, and transfer, and there is no handling fee if you don’t withdraw cash.” Therefore, Master Guo currently has no plan to change the collection code: “If you don’t change it, you can’t continue to use the QR code to collect money. If the money has been paid, then there is no other way to have to change it, how about collecting money?"

　　The reporter learned through visits that many individual industrial and commercial owners, small and micro merchants, and mobile vendors who used personal collection codes had the same concerns as Master Guo.

Fortunately, on the eve of the implementation of the new regulations, the China Payment and Clearing Association issued an announcement clarifying that users can freely choose to use the "personal business collection code".

　　"Since you don't have to change it, you can't change it if you can." Many merchants said that they don't have too many functional requirements for the collection code. It is convenient, safe, and the handling fee is cheap. After getting used to the current collection code , don't want to bother anymore.

It has been nearly 3 months since the implementation of the new regulations. The reporter learned from interviews that most merchants are still using the original payment codes.

　　Mr. Tian, ​​the old tailor, thinks that what worries him most about "changing the code" is the rate issue: "I heard that every money received by the merchant's payment code will be automatically transferred to the bank card, and the procedure for withdrawing cash is higher than the original one. Fee, for a small business like ours, it is naturally unwilling to change.”

　　In order to attract users to upgrade, personal business receipt codes and merchant receipt codes further provide value-added services such as account management, transaction reconciliation, and specific marketing.

　　However, for these functions, Master Guo, who is in his 50s, said that he had never paid attention to them and did not know how to use them.

"Even the current personal collection code is applied for by the child. I don't understand it. It's too complicated. It's good to be simple. Besides, with these functions, what if more money is collected in the future?"

　　However, the limitation of only being able to scan the QR code for customers without completing the main scanning of the merchant and not supporting credit card payment has also become a “hard injury” for personal collection codes to a certain extent.

Some merchants have already upgraded their personal collection codes to merchant collection codes when the new regulations are introduced.

　　"In the past, I used a personal collection code, and the signal in the market was not good. There were often customers who couldn't scan it for a long time, and occasionally customers pretended to scan and left. Sister Lu, who sells vegetables in the restaurant, said that now, using the merchant's payment code, she can scan customers directly through the wireless network, and these problems have been solved.

　　In fact, the person in charge of the relevant department of the central bank has already stated when answering a reporter's question earlier that the "Notice" is mainly to effectively improve the risk management level of payment acceptance terminals and related businesses, and effectively cut off the "capital chain" of crimes such as cross-border gambling.

　　In this regard, Lv Benfu, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that small businesses are mainly worried about being affected by the policy, and these people are the key groups of employment in my country. How to dispel their concerns is a policy that should be considered.

　　"For example, if a farmer sells a small amount of vegetables grown on his own plot, it may be inappropriate to ask him to use the merchant's collection code." Lv Benfu suggested that by measuring the transaction frequency and amount and other indicators, the personal collection code and the merchant's collection code should be measured. Set clear boundaries for the use of payment codes, so as to avoid scolding small and micro merchants for paying excessive handling fees.

　　In addition, industry insiders said that as a legal currency issued by the central bank, the digital renminbi, which is available in an offline state, has zero rates, and arrives in real time, has stronger scene adaptability than other payment methods.

The gradual promotion and application of digital renminbi will give merchants a greater choice of payment tools.

Shi Lanna

Shi Lanna