Watching dramas and ordering takeout can unexpectedly lead to "trick" loans—beware of these hidden traps

Open the food delivery app to order, and a installment discount pops up for a few dollars off; take a ride and finish the payment, and the page pushes a low-interest loan; even if you just top up for a video membership or pay your phone bill, you can see so-called loan entry points. Nowadays, loan-inducement is everywhere in all kinds of life service platforms. What should be rigorous financial borrowing has turned into an operation you can tap anytime. Many people, without realizing what they’re doing, end up activating services and racking up debt, which can even affect their personal credit reports. With financial marketing reaching every corner, and these layered loan traps confronting consumers, how should consumers protect their own financial safety?

Free VIP redirect Watching shows turns into a loan user

Beware the interest-rate illusion trap

Mr. Wang from Zhejiang reports that while watching shows recently, his phone was frequently popping up various loan ads. Slogans like “No need to ask, high额度,到账 instantly” are extremely tempting. During a short break while waiting for a show to play, he accidentally tapped the screen a few times, and he quickly received a prompt offering a loan of up to 200k yuan that could be approved.

Mr. Wang said that in the past, borrowing hundreds of thousands from a bank was a hassle—there were procedures, requirements like property and car collateral, credit checks, and the funds were slow to be released. Now, he can borrow money by tapping a few times on his phone.

Ms. Xie from Jiangxi also, while following a currently popular drama, clicked a button on a certain video platform that said “Get 1 month of VIP for free,” but it redirected to a loan application page.

Ms. Xie: At that time, I was really into watching the drama. When I saw that I could “get 1 month of VIP for free,” I thought I could save a couple dozen yuan and clicked. The next thing I had to do was fill in my ID card and bank information. While filling it out, I only then realized it was an application for a loan. I was really upset—watching a show turned me into a loan user. Now when I see words like “interest-free, loan, installment,” I won’t click around carelessly anymore.

The reporter’s review found that in several commonly used apps—including shopping, entertainment, commuting, and food delivery—many platforms have loan entry points, and some platforms that appear to have nothing to do with loans are no exception. Behind it, there are mainly two models: platform in-house financial products and “loan assistance” services that redirect users from third parties. In the view of digital economy scholar Liu Xingliang, the core goal of internet platforms is conversion rate and the efficiency of monetization. This kind of design is, in essence, deliberately guiding users to improve conversion outcomes.

Liu Xingliang: Loan business has high profit and strong repeat purchases, so it will be placed in the highest-priority recommended positions. The design details are behavioral guidance, and the button color is very conspicuous; the closing button is even more hidden. By default, it calculates the amount you can borrow. These are all behavioral design and they lower users’ decision-making thresholds. According to the “Provisions on the Administration of Algorithmic Recommendation for Internet Information Services,” platforms may not use algorithms to induce excessive consumption. But in reality, many such behaviors are still skirting the rules.

Mr. Xia from Hebei told the reporter that loan ads in the software not only disturb residents, but after someone gets misled and clicks, it also leaves a credit record, planting a hidden risk for later life.

Mr. Xia: Ads related to borrowing will ask for input of my mobile number, ID number, and other information. These ads affect my time and planning when using my phone. After I click in, I can see related browsing records in my credit report. Later, when I need to use loans or small-amount loans, credit-related staff will ask why I clicked links with borrowing-related information—whether I have intentions to use loan-type products recently.

Many people think installment purchases are just a small perk of paying later first, but it turns out that when you add it up, there are quite a number of hidden costs. Tian Lihui, dean of the Finance Development Research Institute at Nankai University, believes that calculating the real cost of borrowing or installments comes down to controlling the interest-rate component.

Tian Lihui: When you see ads saying daily interest is as low as one ten-thousandth, and a loan of a thousand yuan costs only a few cents, be careful—this is not a discount, but a trap of cognition, possibly an interest-rate illusion. Daily interest of one ten-thousandth sounds trivial. But if you multiply it by 365 days to get the annualized rate, that’s 3.65%. If it’s five ten-thousandths, the annualized rate can be as high as 18.25%. That’s already close to the upper limit of legal protection for private lending rates. To guard against this illusion, you must look at the annualized rate. According to regulatory requirements, any loan product must clearly indicate the annualized rate in a prominent place. If they don’t mark it, mark it very small, or only provide the daily interest rate or monthly fee rate indicator, it’s recommended that you turn around and leave.

Tian Lihui also points out that for young people, borrowing for the sake of a few-yuan coupon and then owing more and more—this is a core pain point of consumer finance today. He suggests that ordinary people should clearly understand how much they can borrow and avoid borrowing beyond their repayment ability.

Build a three-in-one governance system

Bring borrowing back to its rational essence

The essence of finance is allocating resources across time—not taking small advantages, which is never worth it. A simple self-check method:

A 30% bottom line

Keep all debt monthly payments within 30% of your monthly income—that’s the comfort zone;

Income minus necessary expense method

Subtract necessary monthly expenses like rent, meals, transportation, etc., from your monthly income. Among the remaining money, at most half should be used to repay debts, and the other half should be saved for emergencies.

True financial freedom is not how much you can borrow, but being able to control the desire not to borrow money.

The State Administration of Financial Regulation recently held talks with five loan-assistance platforms and six travel platforms, directly pointing to issues such as non-standard financial business marketing and unclear disclosure of interest and fees. In March of this year, two departments jointly issued new regulations requiring personal loan businesses to explicitly disclose the comprehensive financing cost, and to list in full all interest and fees and their collection standards.

Tian Lihui believes that non-financial applications are becoming a covert entry point for financial risks. In the past two years, the intensity and speed of related regulation have been unprecedented and historic. Making sure interest and fees are disclosed is only the first step; to fundamentally address these disorderly problems requires a three-in-one governance system.

First, upgrade technological supervision—don’t let algorithms become accomplices in inducing borrowing. Algorithms that exploit users’ financial difficulties need to be banned;

Second, standardize data use—consumption behavior data and financial data need to be strictly separated to prevent platforms from using analysis of food-delivery records or ride-hailing frequency to judge whether you’re already short on money;

Third, establish a full-chain responsibility mechanism—in the marketing stage, disguising things as consumption coupons or points reminders is prohibited. In the signing stage, a cooling-off period should be considered. In the collections stage, violence and aggressive collections must be strictly forbidden.

Most importantly, it is necessary to establish a long-term consumer education mechanism. Financial literacy is not a luxury—it is a necessity. The ultimate purpose of regulation is not to eliminate borrowing, but to make borrowing return to the essence of cautious decision-making.

（CCTV News）