In order to fight back against the professional "wool harvesting", many banks have modified the rules for redeeming credit card points in 2018: Starting from September 1, 2018, within a single calendar month, Minsheng Bank will activate the card in the name of the customer. (Excluding business cards and consumer loan cards) The points accumulation limit is set at 2 times the customer-level credit limit, and the excess will no longer be accumulated into the account of cardholders; starting from December 15, 2018, Ping An Bank Domestic airport/train station pick-up and overseas airport pick-up services provided by related cards and activities will only be used by the cardholders who have obtained the rights...
Industry insiders revealed that banks have made large-scale adjustments to credit card points Rights and interests, especially the rules for accumulating air mileage, are mainly derived from the considerations of cost control and cutting off the interest chain of the "wool" people.
As the saying goes, if you practice three hundred and sixty, you will be the number one scholar. In the Internet rule arbitrage industry, its own industry talents have also been born, which are what we call professional "wool harvesters". At first, "harvesting wool" people were only active on O2O platforms and e-commerce platforms. However, with the rise of Internet finance, the "harvesting wool" people began to move to the financial field.
In the early stage of credit card promotion, in order to increase the activity of card-issuing and card-holding users and enable the cards issued to be activated and used, card-issuing banks did not hesitate to invest heavily in stimulating card consumption and invested heavily in various activities. To stimulate card use, such as applying for card opening gifts, using card points to redeem mileage rewards, etc.
In this context, the professional "wool harvesting" family can continue to multiply. According to the reporter's understanding, the standard equipment of the "stupid sheep" group is generally more than a dozen credit cards. They understand and use the functions and rights of different types of credit cards of various banks very skillfully, so that they can obtain the greatest discounts at the least cost. . The more credit cards you have, the more benefits you have. The more you swipe your cards, the more points you can get, and the more benefits you can redeem.
So how do they profit from it? For the "wool earners", selling the various benefits provided by credit cards is one of the main ways they make money. Take the program of exchanging points for Starbucks coffee coupons launched by a joint-stock bank as an example. After exchanging the points, the "wool collectors" set their own price and then resell them to earn profits. On a certain second-hand trading platform, products like meal vouchers, coffee vouchers, and movie vouchers redeemed with credit cards are on sale.
Among them, because the redemption of air tickets is not restricted by the person, it is the most ruthless benefit item for major industries. "12,000 miles on China Southern Airlines is almost equivalent to a ticket with a distance of more than 800 kilometers. Generally speaking, 25 points on a credit card can be exchanged for 1 mile. Some people will accept air tickets on China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines that are redeemed with a credit card." "Lao Li (pseudonym) told reporters.
Under normal circumstances, the "wool earners" use loopholes in the rules to participate in full cash rebates, point redemptions, and enjoy rights and interests, to obtain maximum rewards and benefits in a real and legal way, and to grab a handful of bank profits. There is nothing wrong with that, but under the temptation of profit, some people who are "squeezing out wool" have seriously stepped on the line.
Credit card analyst Han Yuanyuan pointed out that cash-out and arbitrage have become common profit-making methods for professional "wool earners". Cashing out refers to using fake credit card transactions to obtain cash for other purposes and obtain corresponding credit card consumption points at the same time. Arbitrage is to convert the huge points obtained from cash-out transactions into air miles, physical goods, etc., and then sell them to make a profit, or directly sell the points to "scalpers" to make a profit.
Since 2018, some bank credit card centers have adjusted the content of points exchange for mileage services, in order to officially begin to compete with the professional "wool earners".
Industrial Bank announced that starting from July 1, 2018, airline co-branded cards at different levels of the same airline under the name of the cardholder will automatically redeem airline frequent flyer membership miles (points) within a single calendar year. The total limit of credit card points is adjusted from 1.2 million points to 600,000 points.
Guangfa Bank stated that starting from July 1, 2018, each household can redeem up to 50,000 miles per calendar year, and only high-end cards such as World Card, Infinite Card, and Business Travel Platinum Card can be redeemed. 50,000 miles, points from other credit cards can only be redeemed for up to 30,000 miles per year.
Data show that the number of new credit cards issued by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Merchants Bank in the first half of 2018 exceeded 10 million, while the number of new credit cards issued by China Construction Bank and Ping An Bank were 8.49 million and 917.98 respectively. Thousands of sheets.
As the number of new card issuances increases, the cash-out and arbitrage behavior of professional "wool earners" will also affect the rights and interests of more and more normal cardholders. During the interview, a cardholder said that various bank credit cards will launch some promotions from time to time, many of which have become the pockets of professional "scroungers", while normal cardholders are often unable to grab them.
According to industry insiders, banks’ large-scale adjustment of credit card points rights is mainly due to two considerations: cost control and cutting off the interest chain of the “wool” people. The adjustment of credit card points rules can directly and effectively control the excessive occupation of resources by professional "wool earners", thereby allocating rights and interests to real cardholders and highly qualified users (owning houses, cars, and deposits), but credit card benefits The shrinkage will undoubtedly affect normal card holders.
“The reduction of credit card points rights will be a general trend in the future.” Financial analysts from the Changsha Branch of Industrial Bank suggested that citizens can cancel infrequently used credit cards and concentrate on a few purchases to facilitate accumulation of points; at the same time, choose the most The best time to use the card, such as your birthday, etc., is to enjoy the double point bonus provided by the bank; in addition, pay more attention to bank point doubling or point redemption special promotions.
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