Recently, Mr. Gong, who lives in Daxing District, Beijing, encountered such a thing: after using a credit card for consumption, high interest arose due to failure to repay the full amount. "I originally thought that the interest was based on the amount owed, but in the end I found that the bank actually calculated the interest based on the full amount." Mr. Gong said in confusion.

This strange phenomenon is caused by the bank's long-term implementation of the "full interest accrual" clause on credit cards. The good news is that this “overlord clause” may be about to change. Recently, the Supreme People's Court issued a draft for comments. Among them, regarding the issue of interest accrual on overdue credit cards, the Supreme People’s Court plans to support “interest accrual based on balance”.

In terms of how to pay interest on overdue credit card overdrafts, the "Regulations on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Bank Card Civil Dispute Cases" issued by the Supreme People's Court clearly states that cardholders should choose the minimum repayment amount to repay their credit cards. If the overdraft has been repaid and the minimum repayment amount has been repaid, and the overdraft interest is calculated based on the outstanding overdraft amount from the accounting date to the repayment date, the people's court shall support it. The card-issuing bank failed to provide reasonable reminders and explanations regarding the terms of "repaying credit card overdrafts in accordance with the minimum repayment amount, and charging overdraft interest from the accounting date to the repayment date based on the entire overdraft amount." The cardholder claimed that in accordance with If overdraft interest is calculated on the unpaid overdraft amount, the people's court shall support it. Although the card issuer has fulfilled its obligations of reasonable reminders and explanations, the cardholder has repaid 90% of the entire overdraft amount. If the cardholder claims that the overdraft interest should be calculated based on the outstanding amount, the people's court should support it.

“For consumers, this will help reduce consumption costs; for banks, although it may reduce some income in the short term, it is not without benefits in the long run.” National Finance and Development Experiment Zeng Gang, deputy director of the department, said that a considerable number of customers who failed to repay their credit cards in full were due to temporary negligence, and some had outstanding balances of only hundreds or even dozens of yuan. Under such circumstances, if interest is calculated based on the full amount, it will inevitably affect the user experience. If interest is calculated based on the unpaid portion, it is not only consistent with the reality, but also takes into account the user's feelings.

“Many Internet financial innovations now allow you to borrow and repay at any time, and calculate interest on a daily basis. In this case, if the credit card still calculates interest based on the credit limit, rather than based on the actual amount owed, Information is not in line with the principle of focusing on consumer interests and can easily lead to the loss of users,” Zeng Gang said.

However, some people believe that the credit card business is special. If the cardholder repays the loan on time, it is equivalent to the bank providing users with interest-free funds, and these funds could have been used by the bank to lend. Therefore, cardholders who do not repay on time should pay high penalty.

“Domestic commercial banks charge credit card default penalties, which are essentially risk control measures rather than profit-making measures. Liquidated damages are aimed at cardholders who maliciously overdraft, and the original intention is to urge cardholders to return their credit cards as soon as possible Overdraft." Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Financial Research Institute of Renmin University of China, said that of course, credit card penalty is a "consideration" payment that complies with the spirit of the law and commercial principles, and is also a measure for commercial banks to strengthen risk prevention. At the same time, Help promote the construction of social integrity system.