"My intestines are full of repentance", renting a mobile phone turned out to be frozen! Mobile phone rental was played as a loan shark, with an annualized rate of 250%!

Every reporter: Xiao Shiqing Every editor: Cheng Peng, Zhang Yiming

Why do users have to pay more to rent a mobile phone that originally cost more than 7,000 yuan? There are even people who can't get the physical goods at all? Some people have their houses frozen because of this? What's going on?

With the vigorous development of the platform economy, mobile rental platforms have sprung up like mushrooms. At the same time, it is accompanied by the chaos of the rental platform, and there are tens of thousands of complaints about the mobile phone rental platform on the black cat complaint platform. The complaints include "unreasonable price", "failure to receive the goods", "usury", "violent collection", etc.

What is the connection between mobile phone leasing and "loan sharking"? Recently, a user told the reporter of "Daily Economic News": "I rented an iPhone 14 Pro Max mobile phone on the Youpin rental platform for 12 months, and I have to pay more than 9,000 yuan in rent. After cashing out, I could only get about 6,600 yuan in the end. According to the information provided by the user, this is equivalent to the actual cost she needs to pay for cashing out 6,600 yuan for 12 months, as high as 9,156.49 yuan, and the annualized rate is as high as 138.73%.

But what many users didn't expect was that after getting the cashed out money, it was followed by saddling themselves with high debts. Some even got on the list of "old men", their bank accounts were frozen, and their real estate was frozen.

Buying out mobile phones on the rental platform

30% above market price

The reporter found that there has been a number of mobile phone rental information posted by users on social platforms recently, which shows that the mobile phone is "new and genuine" and "real rental", etc., and the models include iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and other new products in the season.

The user also told reporters: "After entering, select the corresponding model to place a good order, wait for the platform auditor to contact, and then download Tencent Meeting, and the review will be faster at that time." ”

On the platform, the reporter chose a 256G iPhone 15 Pro Max, the platform shows that the lease period is 365 days, if you choose to return it after renting, pay 658.27 yuan per month, the total rent is 7899.24 yuan, and if you choose to buy it out, you need to pay 4999.5 yuan. It means that you have to pay a total of 12,898.74 yuan, and even if you choose to give it away when the lease is full, you need to pay 1,074.81 yuan per month, and the total rent is 12,897.72 yuan after 12 installments.

Screenshot of the order details of the rental platform

However, the reporter noticed that the price of the same product in Jingdong's Apple self-operated flagship store was 9999 yuan. If you choose to buy out the phone, the price on the above platform is nearly 30% higher than the price of the product on JD.com.

On the third-party complaint platform, some users said that they rented an iPhone 14 Pro Max mobile phone on a platform in May this year, and the mobile phone that was originally worth less than 8,000 yuan was bought out at a price of 12,000 yuan. The user demanded that the platform return the cost of the phone beyond its original value.

According to Article 17 of the Interim Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Financial Leasing Companies, financial leasing companies shall establish and improve the value assessment and pricing system of leased objects, and determine the rent level according to the value of leased objects, other costs and reasonable profits. In the sale-leaseback business, the financial leasing company shall have a reasonable pricing basis for the purchase price of the leased property that does not violate the accounting standards as a reference, and shall not buy at a low value or at a high price.

It is worth noting that on the black cat complaints, there are as many as 10,000 complaints related to "rental", but the content of the complaints is rarely related to "leasing", only a small number of consumers complain about "non-delivery" and "fakes", etc., and the vast majority of them are related to "usury" and "violent collection".

Lease a plane to "cash out" and take on high debts

The property was also frozen

What is the connection between mobile phone leasing and "usury"? According to this reporter's investigation, many rental platforms have actually become lending platforms used by intermediaries in disguise.

On a social platform, the reporter contacted the user who posted the rental information in the name of renting a plane. After adding its WeChat, a user asked the reporter whether he was using it for himself or cashing out, and the other party said that he would provide information such as Sesame Credit Rating, Alipay Huabei Quota, and Jingdong Baitiao Quota for cashing out, and asked the reporter if there were overdue loans on other platforms.

So how exactly does "cashing out" work? Some intermediaries told reporters that after getting the mobile phone, they can find a way to sell or cash out, or sell it directly to them, and if they do not have enough funds in the process of renting the phone, they can also pay the rent in advance.

Ms. Yang, who has cashed out experience, told reporters: "In 2021, the economy was relatively tight after doing business at a loss, and after being introduced by a friend, I met a rental agent, saying that I could cash out by renting a mobile phone." At that time, when I met offline, the agent asked me to bring my ID card and photocopy, and they were holding me in the whole process, except for entering the password and face recognition, I didn't touch my mobile phone much during the whole process. ”

Although it was cashed out by renting a mobile phone, Ms. Yang said: "The mobile phone agent took it, and I don't know what they did with it." They rented me a mobile phone on three platforms in total, and each mobile phone gave me 2,000 yuan, and cashed out nearly 6,000 yuan in total. ”

But what Ms. Yang didn't expect was that she only cashed out 6,000 yuan, but she was burdened with high debts. "I really regret it, the rent of the three platforms will be repaid nearly 2,000 yuan per month, and the corresponding liquidated damages will be generated if it is overdue, and it will not be paid later. But they warned me many times that they would sue me if they didn't pay it back, and then I received a summons from the court and was listed as a 'rogue'. ”

According to Ms. Yang, the mobile phone intermediary paid the first installment of 639.35 yuan in rent, and cashed out 2,000 yuan, and actually had to pay 7,000 yuan, which is equivalent to an annualized loan rate of 250%.

According to the rental information provided by Ms. Yang, she rented an iPhone12 Pro Max mobile phone for a period of 1 year, and she needed to pay a rent of 639.35 yuan for each period, with a total rent of 7672.3 yuan. However, Ms. Yang only paid 5 installments, that is, 3,366.35 yuan, and another 9,233.35 yuan for the buyout.

"One of the platforms also froze the house in my name, and I found out later that I took the house to the bank as collateral due to business turnover. Later, in order to end the order, I paid more than 7,000 yuan to pay off the remaining rent and buy out the mobile phone, and the house was unfrozen.

Coincidentally, another rental user, Ms. Wang, recalled that she used six rental platforms. She said: "At that time, because I was about to repay the online loan, the people from the online loan institution told me that I could cash out the rented machine, and I did not check the credit information, and the approval rate was also high. I've never heard of this before. ”

The screenshot provided by Ms. Wang shows that she rented an iPhone 14 Pro Max mobile phone on Youpin Rent through a payment platform for 12 months, with a total deposit of 15,756.49 yuan. After cashing out, Ms. Wang could only get about 6,600 yuan in the end. It is equivalent to that the actual cost that Ms. Wang needs to pay for cashing out 6,600 yuan for 12 months is as high as 9,156.49 yuan, and the annualized rate is as high as 138.73%.

What's more, there are as many as 9 rental platforms for cashing out. Ms. Yue told reporters that she also used the rental machine to cash out under the guidance of an intermediary when the debt was not repaid. According to the information she provided, the total cost of an iPad Pro she rented was 12,927 yuan, and the intermediary cashed out 6,200 yuan for her, which is equivalent to a cash cost of up to 6,727 yuan, equivalent to an annualized rate of 108.5%.

"At that time, it was like a demon stunned, I cashed out a total of nearly 70,000 yuan on 9 platforms, but the price was more than 100,000 yuan in rent waiting for me to pay back. Ms. Yue said that she had to repay more than 9,000 yuan in rent every month, and she was overwhelmed, and many platforms were overdue, and the other party frequently sent messages to urge rent, and repeatedly said that she would be sued in court.

What is "cashing out"?

After renting out the mobile phone, the user sells it at a low price to get the funds

After many investigations, the reporter found that the so-called "cash-out" is essentially that with the assistance of intermediaries, customers lease mobile phones, office equipment and other electronic products, and then transfer them to mobile phone recyclers at a lower price to withdraw funds.

A person familiar with the matter told reporters that users who choose to cash out their mobile phones are generally unable to borrow funds through formal channels, so they will choose to borrow from the leasing platform curve. She also told reporters: "In this way of borrowing, the qualification review is relatively relaxed, and some even provide identity verification to successfully rent a plane." ”

The reporter noticed that in the case that the user does not have the funds to pay the down rent, there are intermediaries who can also advance the down rent, and after the user lends the mobile phone on the platform, he will sell it to the intermediary at the agreed price.

The person familiar with the matter said: "In fact, providing advance payment through intermediaries has also greatly lowered the threshold for users to cash out." Intermediaries and customers are well aware of this cash-out method, and many people who lend their mobile phones don't even think about paying it back, because the mobile phones have already been sold, and paying the buyout price later is also a choice that many users have to make. ”

The reporter noticed that in recent years, the way of cashing out through the single commodity of leasing mobile phones has gradually extended to more types of goods, such as gold, jewelry, etc.

For this reason, every time the reporter called the customer service number of the premium rental platform mentioned by the above-mentioned user, the staff in charge of the relevant business replied to the reporter: "When the user rents the mobile phone, we are clearly informed that the mobile phone cannot be sold, etc., and we must ensure that the mobile phone is signed by the user himself, but it is difficult for us to control how the user disposes of the mobile phone." The platform also reminds users that they only have the right to use the mobile phone during the rental period, and cannot trust the intermediary to dispose of the mobile phone in violation of regulations. ”

People familiar with the matter: It is not ruled out that there is a platform behavior

In fact, most of the users who rent mobile phones are not for their own use, and they are always rushing to cash out, but they are also jumping from one fire pit to another.

A person familiar with the matter said that as early as 2017, credit leasing began to emerge and was regarded as a new consumer finance model. From the perspective of user experience, there is no essential difference between credit leasing and common consumption installments, both of which are monthly rent payments (installments). The biggest difference between the two models may be more reflected in the aspect of ownership, the former is the user has the right to use, and the latter is ownership. Like consumption installment, credit leasing will also carry out necessary risk control for users.

She told reporters: "I learned that there are probably two types of people who use rental machines to cash out, one is that formal lending institutions can't lend money, and the rental review is relatively not so strict, such as credit problems, but Sesame Credit is well maintained, and you can still rent out mobile phones." The other type is the group of people who used to take out loans, for them, the emergence of the rental platform is to have more new openings, so they must be able to masturbate. ”

The above-mentioned people familiar with the matter also said: "In fact, many rental machines are intermediary behaviors, they will test which leasing platforms are easy to rent, and then provide this information to borrowers, as well as participate in the realization of the lease process, many borrowers after the successful rental of the mail address is written to the address designated by the intermediary, or after receiving the mobile phone and then mailed to the address designated by the intermediary, the realization of the difference is a very important part of the intermediary to earn fees." ”

The reporter also learned from a person who rented the plane that some people in the market organized this kind of training course, convening 50 or 60 people to hold classes to teach users how to borrow money from the platform and cash out shopping. As long as the mobile phone operates real-name authentication, then the money (shopping) will be released, so that they can also receive a commission from it.

It is worth noting that the above-mentioned insider also emphasized: "Of course, it is not excluded that there are rental platform behaviors, and the payment platform has previously removed many leasing agencies, some of which are weekly payment and monthly payment (short-term rental platform), and users pay rent every week or every two weeks, which is very costly, just like the previous '714 anti-aircraft gun', and many people call this '714 short-term rental small anti-aircraft artillery'." ”

According to the chat records provided by the rental user Xiao Zhou, he added the enterprise WeChat of a staff member of the leasing platform under the introduction of the intermediary. The staff of the platform said that they would deliver the goods to him as soon as possible when they understood that Xiao Zhou wanted to cash out by renting a machine. In addition, the staff member also said that "users want capital turnover, tear down the east wall to make up the west wall" and other situations, they are aware.

The reporter noted that in July this year, the payment platform announced the establishment of a joint governance team for the leasing industry to target undesirable phenomena such as "high-priced leasing, underage leasing, multi-leasing, and violent collection".

Lawyers: The intermediaries of the initiators should be targeted and targeted

Wang Deyi, a lawyer from Beijing Xunzhen Law Firm, told reporters: "The rules of the payment platform stipulate that it is strictly forbidden to operate non-leasing businesses such as loans in the name of leasing, or to carry out behaviors that are obviously different from the (ultra-high or ultra-low) industry leasing price level, and it is forbidden to provide users with leasing services that exceed their spending power." ”

Wang Deyi believes that some platform merchants guide users to rent phones for cash, which essentially makes the behavior of renting mobile phones evolve into high-interest loan consumption. The fees charged by the program provider far exceed the legal interest rate or the standard allowed by the payment platform.

He analyzed and pointed out that the main violations of this transaction are: First, the mini program provider is not qualified for financial lending or wealth management products, but in essence, they are doing financial lending, or lending through the Internet. The second is that the rules they actually use violate the rules set by the platform and deviate from the original intention of the rental industry. The third is to induce users to sell their mobile phones at a low price for cash, continue to make the difference in the second-hand market, and harvest again. When these users are unable to repay the loan, they may face arbitration or litigation, which will induce new social conflicts and consume judicial resources.

Sui Sijin, deputy director of Beijing Zeheng Law Firm, believes that if these "consumers with huge debts" are insolvent and plot with intermediaries in advance, or rent aircraft only for the purpose of selling intermediaries for cash, the act of renting aircraft from multiple leasing platforms meets the constitutive elements of the crime of contract fraud, and the crime of contract fraud refers to the act of defrauding the other party of property by fabricating facts or concealing the truth and other deceptive means in the process of signing and performing a contract for the purpose of illegal possession, and the amount is relatively large.

Finally, Wang Deyi also suggested that users should not participate in this kind of online transactions that do not match their own spending power, so as to avoid being in debt due to improper consumption. The essence of publishing information diversion is consignment, and it is recommended that online platforms remove such diversion content in a timely manner.

Sui Sijin said that the operation of the leasing platform should not be restricted because of the existence of rental machine sales, and the intermediary agency of the initiator should be accurately cracked down, and the "consumers" involved in it should also be punished with a small punishment, so as not to become a criminal tool of others.

Reporter |

Editor|Cheng Peng, Zhang Yiming, Gai Yuanyuan

Proofreading|Wang Yuelong

Cover image source: Courtesy of the interviewee

|National Business Daily nbdnews original article|

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