"I only wanted to get 4 5 yuan taxi coupons, but I accidentally borrowed 10,000 yuan", "I was opened a small personal loan when I booked a hotel without paying attention", "I can even borrow money for retouching pictures and video apps these days"...... Recently, many consumers reported to the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that in a variety of non-financial mobile phone applications, when they click to receive coupons, free video memberships, and choose preferential payment, they will be "induced" or "mistaken" to enter the loan page, and even accidentally saddled a loan with a higher interest rate. Some consumers sighed, buying onions, repairing pictures, and receiving coupons...... can be loaned, why does an App want to lend you money?
The actual annualized interest rate of the platform is "hidden" in the small print at the bottom
Receiving a taxi coupon was "loaned"
"I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, I felt that I was confused and kept clicking 'agree' and 'confirm', and I didn't know how I finally received a text message notification, saying that 10,000 yuan was transferred to the bank card!" Miss Lu questioned in an interview with reporters, "I thought that I could get coupons by simply registering for a 'drip loan', why did I apply for a loan amount by default, and I directly added a sum of money?" But I didn't need to borrow money at all, and the outrageous thing is that I didn't get a taxi coupon in the end. ”
On the second day, she contacted Didi's customer service and informed her that she did not want to apply for a loan, and hoped to settle the "pending principal" in advance at one time. However, the customer service said that early repayment needs to make up the interest and "penalty" incurred on the basis of repaying the principal. In desperation, she decided to complain on the relevant platform, and it was resolved after many negotiations. "The interest is calculated on a daily basis, and it rolls up a little bit for each day of delay, and finally the penalty interest is waived, and the interest of 162 yuan is still deducted. ”
Not only Miss Lu, but on December 25 last year, netizen "Weiwei" (nickname) posted on a social platform "For (three) seven-yuan coupons, I owe Didi 40,000 yuan" also sparked heated discussions, with more than 200,000 reads and more than 3,600 comments. The experience described by the netizen is very similar to Miss Lu, who was attracted by the no-threshold coupon (3 7 yuan express coupons), and after one operation, the SMS prompt received 40,000 yuan.
In the meantime, "Weiwei" continued to post: "I always thought that I was just opening a quota, and I didn't expect to 'borrow' at a certain step, I didn't enter any amount figures, the only thing I entered was the payment password, and I was really confused at the time." "It's because of the face verification, bank card binding and other operations in the front, it's a lot of trouble to do it, and I want to complete it quickly, so the back is very fast, and I didn't look carefully." ”
On December 26 last year, "Weiwei" updated the processing results, and its SMS screenshot showed that "your order with the number XXX has been repaid 40,026.64 yuan", that is, on the basis of returning the principal, an additional 26.64 yuan was made up (only one day). She added in the post that "there should also be a control over the pervasive inducement of small loans by various apps."
In addition, Miss Ou (pseudonym) from Jiangsu mentioned to reporters that recently, she booked a hotel on the Zhixing train ticket, and when she finally paid, the App popped up the "Take it to spend" window.
Didi Chuxing uses coupons to attract traffic to lending services
Borrowing money service into the software "standard"?
Is the drainage of loans really pervasive?
The reporter selected ten commonly used non-financial apps for actual testing, covering travel, retouching, photography, online disk, takeaway, travel, social networking, video and other types.
For example, after opening Didi Chuxing for a period of time, a pop-up window message will appear, "You have 10 15 yuan express coupons that have not been claimed", and after touching it by mistake, it will automatically jump to the page of following the "Didi Credit Loan" official account, which is certified by Chongqing West Coast Microfinance Co., Ltd. (100% owned by Didi Hong Kong Technology Co., Ltd.).
After paying attention, it will prompt "Congratulations, get the 150 yuan express coupon package, poke the mini program to receive it immediately", and then enter Didi's credit service platform, and remind you to check the agreement and receive the quota. The reporter exited the mini program many times and re-entered the page before mentioning that he needed to activate the quota to receive a 15 yuan express coupon, and to receive the remaining 135 yuan express coupon package, he needed to borrow successfully.
In the travel booking apps Ctrip and Zhixing train tickets, the reporter purchased a one-way ticket, and the final payment page provided "take it to spend" installment payment financial services. In particular, this option is marked as "officially recommended", and the use discount is "up to 99 yuan random discount". After selection, there will be an inconspicuous word "relevant agreement" at the bottom, which includes "Personal Information Authorization Letter", "Personal Loan Limit Contract", "Take to Spend - Chongqing Ctrip Small Loan Loan Contract", etc.
iQIYI and other video apps also have their own unique "routines", that is, under the welfare banner of "free receipt of X months video VIP" and "free VIP monthly card", a series of credit service platforms such as Xiaoya Loan, Installment Le, Haier Consumer Gold, and Paipai Loan are required to register for the first time, obtain a quota and borrow for the first time in order to enjoy the preferential activity. In addition, on various apps such as the Meitu App, BeautyCam, Meituan Takeaway, Hello, Weibo, and Baidu Netdrive, the "borrowing money" service has also become a standard.
Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Yangcheng Evening News that on the one hand, apps can increase the frequency and duration of users' software use by providing lending services, thereby improving user stickiness and loyalty; on the other hand, they can bring additional income such as repayment interest, which has a positive effect on expanding diversified business profit models and market competitiveness.
Interest rates are on the edge of the legal red line
It is worth noting that small online loans are often gimmicks with low interest rates. However, according to the details of the loan products drained by the above-mentioned platforms, the annualized interest rate (simple interest) is mostly 7.2%, and the minimum daily interest rate is 0.02%, that is, the interest rate of 10,000 yuan borrowed for one day starts at 2 yuan, and the annual interest rate of some products reaches more than 10%. In contrast, the annual interest rate of pure credit consumer loans of banks is generally priced in the range of 3%-4%.
The reporter also noticed that the minimum annual interest rate is written in the middle of the product details page, which actually hides another "face". For example, iQiyi App's drainage of Paipai Loan emphasizes "annualized interest rate from 4.8%", but at the bottom is a small line of light gray font "The comprehensive annualized interest rate of this platform is simple interest 4.8%-24%". The page display of installment music is also "painstaking", and the comprehensive annualized interest rate of the platform indicated at the bottom is 8%-36%.
This is also corroborated by the amount of interest offered by multiple consumers. The annualized interest rate of the lending service they inadvertently opened was calculated to be 21.46%, 21.49% or 23.97%. In this regard, a number of App customer service explained to reporters during manual service that the final interest rate pricing is based on personal credit history, loan performance, etc., which is comprehensively assessed by the funder and subject to the loan contract.
Is such a high interest rate legal and compliant?
According to the Several Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Further Strengthening Financial Adjudication, "usury shall be strictly regulated in accordance with laws and regulations, and the financing costs of the real economy shall be effectively reduced." If the borrower of a financial loan contract requests a reduction of the total annual interest rate of more than 24% on the grounds that the interest, compound interest, penalty interest, liquidated damages and other expenses claimed by the lender at the same time are too high and significantly deviate from the actual loss, it shall be supported, so as to effectively reduce the financing cost of the real economy. In other words, the upper limit of the legal protection of financial loans is 24% per annum.
"Generally speaking, the credit products of well-known traffic platforms or Internet companies are directly provided by financial institutions with legal lending qualifications, including banks, consumer finance companies, microfinance companies, etc., and the interest rate is basically within the 24% red line. A consumer finance industry insider, who did not want to be named, told reporters, "In the past, private lending had a conventional 'two lines and three zones', that is, the annualized interest rate within 24% was protected by law, 24%-36% could be voluntarily negotiated and not protected by law; more than 36% belonged to usury, and the debtor could ask for it to be returned." It is not excluded that some 'waist' companies will be opportunistic by adding handling fees and service fees, and the final loan interest rate is higher than 24%. ”
Expert Alert: Be aware of privacy and credit risk
In response to the situation of the online loan market "piled up" by the app, the account manager of a joint-stock commercial bank said that the bank loan process is very strict, not only will the customer information authorization and other documents be signed in duplicate, the loan amount will be approved with a strict approval path, the loan use conditions are restricted, and the borrower will be informed of the corresponding rights and obligations With just one click to check or agree to the agreement, you can quickly authorize a number of personal (sensitive) information and even open the loan function, and many important contract terms are compressed and hidden and will not be forced to pop up for users to browse.
He reminded that some consumers have seen the "loan approval" query records of online microfinance companies and consumer finance companies on their personal credit reports, but there is no actual lending behavior, which may also be related to one-click authorization, and it is recommended not to measure, activate, and receive the limit casually.
Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, also mentioned that financial consumers should pay attention to risks such as privacy leakage, high interest rates, inability to repay on time or default, and excessive borrowing when using this kind of lending service. Important information such as overdue fees, and plan your borrowing and repayment plan to ensure you can afford to make payments on time and avoid unnecessary debt accumulation.
Lawyer's statement: The behavior of the platform may damage the right to know and the right to privacy
Regarding the problems reflected by the above-mentioned consumers and reporters, a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News interviewed lawyer Liu Xuhui of Guangdong Daoyi Law Firm. She said, "Welfare drainage, one-click checkbox and other behaviors have the possibility of harming consumers' right to know, if consumers do not fully understand the content of the agreement due to the opening of loan services due to mistake, first of all, the problem of the flow of customers' personal information; second, if the loan contract with the loan company is really reached due to a major misunderstanding on the part of the consumer, it is difficult to pay attention to the more important interest and default clauses in the contract, which will lead to the consequences of the loss of the rights and interests of consumers who mistakenly lend high-interest loans." ”
In addition, she mentioned that if there is a situation where consumers are required to authorize personal information to other platforms after jumping from the original app to other loan service platforms, the result of consumers inadvertently authorizing personal information to other platforms due to insufficient notification by the App will lead to damage to users' privacy. The above requires the platform to earnestly fulfill its own prompting and review obligations, otherwise it is very easy to generate legal risks.
Regarding consumers' subsequent demands for "repayment", Liu Xuhui believes that consumers can promptly request the platform to revoke the loan application and terminate the loan contract after the loan is opened by mistake, and after the contract is terminated, the platform can be required to refund the interest and penalties incurred due to the wrong loan opening. In addition, consumers can also file complaints and reports with the relevant regulatory authorities to request an investigation into the platform suspected of "inducing" lending and infringing on consumer rights. When necessary, consumers can seek legal recourse to protect their rights and interests. At the same time, consumers should strengthen their awareness of self-protection and carefully read the relevant agreements when using the App to avoid damage to their rights and interests due to negligence.
Text | Reporter Huang Yinglin