The central bank canceled the ＂reserve subsidy＂ and the free meal for credit card repayment shrank.
The feast of free credit card repayment is gradually shrinking. After the full payment of credit card repayment by WeChat, Alipay will also cancel the policy of free credit card repayment. Yesterday, Weibo, the official Alipay, issued an announcement on "Adjustment of Alipay Credit Card Repayment Service Rules". According to the announcement, starting from March 26, 2019, when individual users use the "credit card repayment" function of Alipay client, Alipay will charge 0.1% service fee for the part exceeding the free quota of 2,000 yuan.
Alipay will charge more than 2,000 yuan for credit card repayment.
Alipay said that this adjustment is due to the rising comprehensive operating cost of credit card repayment service, and struggling to support it is not conducive to sustainable development, but charging means that higher service standards are needed and users will be rewarded with more and better services.
After the new regulations come into effect, how to charge? If the user pays back less than 2000 yuan, it is still free. Only the excess will be charged with a service charge of 0.1%. Taking 3,000 yuan as an example, if the free quota of 2,000 yuan is deducted, the service fee that users need to pay is 1,000× 0.1% = 1 yuan.
Alipay’s rules for adjusting credit card repayment are not the first in the industry, and WeChat has taken the lead in ending the benefits of free credit repayment.
Since December 2017, WeChat has officially started to charge users for credit card repayment business, charging 0.1% (minimum 0.1 yuan) for the part that the accumulated repayment amount exceeds 5,000 yuan per natural month, and the part that does not exceed 5,000 yuan is still free. In August 2018, the amount of 5,000 yuan free of charge was officially cancelled.
From August 1st last year, except for Platinum and Gold members of WeChat Licaitong and users who have been transferred to 500 yuan or above for the fixed investment plan, other users will be charged a handling fee of 0.1% of the repayment amount through WeChat, and no free quota will be set.
The charging ratio of Alipay is the same as that of WeChat, which is 0.1%. However, Alipay has set a free quota of 2,000 yuan for each user, and only charges 0.1% for the excess. Therefore, Alipay will save 2 yuan service fees over 2,000 yuan, no matter how much it pays back.
The bank charges the third party a passage fee.
When WeChat cancelled the charges at that time, it also explained that there would be a payment channel fee behind each repayment. In order to enable users to enjoy some free product experiences, Tencent Tenpay has been subsidizing the fees.
Industry insiders told reporters that Alipay and WeChat started charging in order to balance costs and sustainable development. Because banks have to charge channel fees to third-party institutions. Even if they charge one thousandth of the handling fee now, they still have to subsidize about five thousandths of the handling fee.
These costs have always been there. Why can’t we bear them now? Some insiders believe that the reform of "centralized deposit and management of payment institutions’ reserves" ended in January this year is likely to be one of the important influencing factors.
The "reserve subsidy" is gone
The so-called "reserve fund" refers to the monetary funds actually received by the payment institution to handle the payment business entrusted by customers. This fund has expanded with the expansion of the number of customers and payment business, and has generated huge capital gains in the precipitation period. In the past, the central bank stipulated that the interest on customers’ reserves belonged to third-party payment companies. Therefore, the interest income from customers’ reserves has been a major source of income for many payment institutions. However, some small and medium-sized payment institutions can’t resist the temptation, and boldly misappropriate and occupy customers’ reserve funds, causing many risk events.
So the central bank changed its policy. According to the current policy, all third-party payment institutions, including Alipay and Tenpay, should cancel the RMB customer reserve account before January 14th this year. The reserve funds of payment institutions will be taken over by the central bank, and interest will not be paid temporarily. In the past, the payment institution could use this part of interest to subsidize the handling fee cost, but now it is gone.
Tencent’s interim report in 2018 shows that due to the requirement of centralized deposit ratio of reserve funds, the overnight cash balance that payment service providers can obtain interest income has decreased, which continues to adversely affect Tencent’s payment service income and gross profit margin to a greater extent.
Another adverse effect brought by the new rules of reserve fund is to reduce the bargaining power of cooperation with banks. Some insiders said that before the payment institution chose the reserve deposit bank, the bargaining power was very strong. In order to strive for deposits from payment institutions, banks will give a large margin of profit in channel fees. Now that the reserve funds are uniformly collected, payment institutions can no longer contribute deposits to banks, and banks have no reason to make profits. The channel rate is likely to rise, and the cost pressure of payment institutions will inevitably increase.
Free advice
1. There are still tricks for free repayment of WeChat Alipay.
If the user is used to Alipay or WeChat repayment, and the repayment amount is more than 2,000 yuan, is there any way? Alipay suggests that you can redeem more free credits through Alipay membership points, or ask family members who still have free credits to help complete the repayment.
According to the regulations of WeChat, there are three types of customers who can continue to enjoy full credit card repayment free of charge, namely, Tencent Licaitong Platinum, Gold members and users who have been transferred to 500 yuan or above by the "Love Investment Plan".
The membership level is divided according to the financial value. The financial value of platinum and gold members is 500,000 and 100,000 respectively, which can be improved by immediately increasing total assets and doing tasks. In contrast, it is more cost-effective to transfer to 500 yuan for fixed investment every month, and you can also enjoy the benefits of free credit card repayment.
2. UnionPay bank can pay back the credit card for free.
Of course, you can continue to enjoy the lunch with free credit card repayment in UnionPay and banks.
For credit card users, the most worry-free way is to bind the debit card accounts of peers and set up automatic repayment. Even if automatic repayment is not selected, all channels of repayment by the issuing bank are free.
Some cardholders don’t have debit cards from credit card issuers, and they use other banks’ online banking or mobile banking to make cross-bank repayments. Many banks don’t charge fees. For example, the two major apps of China Merchants Bank, including China Merchants Bank APP and Pocket Life APP, also support free credit card repayment, and also support inter-bank repayment.
It is understood that credit card repayment and transfer through China Unionpay Quick Pass, the official APP of China UnionPay, are also free. In addition, 66 banks, including Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Postal Savings, China Everbright, CITIC, Pudong Development Bank, Minsheng, Huaxia, Ping An, Guangfa, Xingye, Bank of Beijing and Bank of Shanghai, have launched credit card bill inquiry services in China Unionpay Quick Pass. "China Unionpay Quick Pass" also has many functions, such as credit card benefit inquiry, card application service, mobile phone flash payment opening and so on, where users can enjoy convenient, fast, labor-saving and worry-free credit card service.
3. Du Xiaoman and Jingdong Finance can repay for free.
At present, among the three platforms of BAT, only Xiaoman Finance still provides credit card free repayment service. Users can download Xiaoman Financial APP, and you can see the credit card repayment function on the homepage. You can also download Xiaoman Financial’s credit service APP "Money Spend", and you can easily perform credit card repayment operation in the "Discovery" column. At present, Du Xiaoman Finance supports the credit card repayment of 28 banks, covering prime bank, and it usually takes 30 minutes to get the account.
Jingdong financial APP can also repay credit cards for free. At present, JD Finance supports users to repay credit cards from 29 banks including Industry, Agriculture, China, Construction, Communications, China Merchants Bank and CITIC, which usually arrive within 30 minutes.
Text/reporter Cheng Wei
Photo courtesy/vision china