credit card benefits adjustment! in the era of land grabbing, many banks have emphasized the number and amount of consumption
2024-09-21
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increasing the number and amount of consumption restrictions, many banks have announced adjustments to credit card benefits since the second half of this year. according to incomplete statistics from shell finance reporters, many banks including china citic bank, everbright bank, ping an bank, and china guangfa bank have made different forms of adjustments to the benefits of some of their credit cards.
"this year, such adjustments to credit card benefits are quite common, and the direction of the adjustments is mainly to reduce costs." a person in the banking industry told shell finance that the previous high-benefits and high-grade credit card strategy was mainly focused on expansion and incremental markets. however, the current bank income has declined, and the credit card market has entered the era of stock management. therefore, this high-investment model is no longer sustainable, and adjustments to the relevant card benefits are imperative.
in the stock era, credit card expert dong zheng believes that consumers are less willing to spend large sums, but their purchasing power for small necessities is still strong. to revitalize stock users, banks need to further study consumer preferences and come up with products that better suit consumer habits.
several banks issued change announcementsbenefit acquisition emphasizes the number and amount of consumption
recently, more and more banks are adjusting the benefits of their credit cards. reporters found that many banks have added restrictions on the number and amount of purchases in their adjustments to the requirements for obtaining benefits.
china citic bank issued an announcement on september 14, stating that the bank will adjust and optimize the transaction rights and interests rules of china citic bank unionpay i platinum credit card 1 platinum exclusive 36+1 new life" starting from november 1 this year.
comparing before and after the benefits adjustment, the bank has added amount limits for the previous "monthly transactions of 2,000 yuan, 14,000 yuan, and 16,000 yuan, you can get 11,213 'i platinum exclusive 36+1 new life' transaction benefits points the next month", such as "monthly transactions of 2,000 yuan or more, including at least 500 yuan of unionpay channel transactions, you can get 1 'i platinum exclusive 36+1 new life' transaction benefits point the next month" and "monthly transactions of 4,000 yuan or more, including at least 1,000 yuan of unionpay channel transactions, you can get 2 'i platinum exclusive 36+1 new life' transaction benefits points the next month".
ping an bank has also adjusted its annual fee policies for many credit cards. for example, the annual fee of the youyue platinum credit card issued by the bank, which could previously be redeemed directly with points, will now require a certain minimum spending amount after november 1 this year. among them, the annual fee of the youyue bai-lexing edition credit card will only be waived if the annual fee is "consumed at least 50,000 yuan in the current year" before it can be waived in the next year.
in addition, some banks have also reduced the scope of use of some value-added services of credit cards. for example, china everbright bank announced in september that its airport pick-up and drop-off service, one-day free car rental service, and healthy dental cleaning service will be terminated on october 31, 2024 due to the expiration of the contract.
“cost reduction”or the main reasonbank credit card transaction amount shrinks
shell finance reporters found that changes in these rights and interests have been common since january this year, with each bank having different strategies and varying degrees of contraction.
in dong zheng's opinion, banks are generally reducing credit card benefits. there are usually two ways to reduce fees. one is to raise the threshold for obtaining benefits, such as increasing the limit on the amount and number of card swipes, and the other is to directly reduce the scope of benefits. reducing costs is the main reason why banks generally adjust credit card benefits.
according to shell finance reporters, after a rapid development in the past few years, the credit card business has encountered a bottleneck in recent years. previously, many banks' credit card transactions doubled year after year, but now they are declining across the board.
according to the semi-annual reports of listed banks, the credit card consumption of many major banks has declined. among the six major banks, except for the agricultural bank of china, the credit card consumption of the other five banks has declined to varying degrees, among which the bank of communications has the largest decline, down 13.72% year-on-year; the credit card consumption of the postal savings bank of china has decreased by 11.26% year-on-year.
similar situations have also occurred in many joint-stock banks. in the second quarter, the credit card loan balance of industrial bank fell below 400 billion yuan, shrinking to 368.574 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11% from the end of june 2023. the credit card loan balance of ping an bank fell by 14.9% year-on-year in the first half of this year; the credit card loan balance of pudong development bank also fell by 11.85% year-on-year.
"the continued shrinkage of credit card loan balances is related to the current insufficient consumer demand, which also directly affects the bank's operating income." dong zheng told the shell finance reporter that under such circumstances, the bank's previous "high-profile" approach to credit cards not only put continued pressure on bank operating costs, but also failed to achieve the original marketing effect.
an industry insider also pointed out that in the past strategy of vigorously developing retail business, credit cards were the best channel for acquiring customers. banks are willing to invest more money and increase discounts and benefits to cultivate future customers. however, in recent years, the growth of retail and corporate business has been weak. this approach of attracting customers through large investments cannot create more profits for banks, so the decline in credit card benefits may become the norm.
the era of inventory has arrivedwhether credit cards can innovate to cater to the target audience is the key
after the rapid development in the past few years, the era of "land grabbing" of credit cards has passed and we have entered the "stock era".
according to dong zheng's estimate, there are about 500 million cardholders in china who have at least one credit card. based on the 807 million cards in circulation, the average number of cards held per person has reached 1.6. at the same time, according to the requirements of the new credit card regulations, banks should deduct the credit line of customers that have been granted by other institutions when approving and adjusting credit lines. this means that among the current groups that are suitable for cardholders, credit cards have reached a relatively saturated state.
"bank credit cards have indeed entered the stock era." a banking industry insider pointed out that in the past, the "high equity, high grade" approach was mainly to attract new customers and focus on expansion and incremental markets. however, after entering the stock era, this "high-profile" approach of credit cards has gradually become ineffective, so many cards only need to maintain basic functions.
in fact, in recent years, banks have been constantly looking for ways to revitalize existing customers. some industry insiders believe that many banks currently set the amount and number of consumption for consumers' rights and interests, hoping to encourage consumers to use credit cards more, which is one of the means to revitalize customers. only when the credit card loan balance increases can banks increase revenue through credit cards.
however, dong zheng believes that current bank credit cards should pay more attention to consumer spending habits, and thus introduce new products to attract customers to use credit cards.
"the total retail sales of consumer goods continued to decline, especially the consumption of some luxury goods and household appliances, but daily consumer goods such as catering, food, and medicine still maintained their growth momentum." he suggested that banks could reduce previous benefits such as preferential treatment for luxury consumption and increase the benefits of rigid consumption preferential treatment.
beijing news shell financial reporter jiang fan editor chen li proofreader wang xin
