WeChat charges for cash withdrawals for other reasons

WeChat Pay transfers have returned to the free era, but WeChat Pay withdrawals will start charging. Yesterday, WeChat said that starting from March 1, WeChat Pay will start charging for cash withdrawals. Each person can only enjoy a cumulative free withdrawal limit of 1,000 yuan for life, and the excess will be charged at a rate of 0.1%. As for the reason for charging fees, WeChat said it was just to pay bank fees. However, many market participants do not agree that WeChat "passes the buck" to commercial banks, but believe that WeChat wants more funds to be spent in its own application scenarios.

Lifetime free quota is only 1,000 yuan

Yesterday, WeChat suddenly announced that starting from March 1, 2016, WeChat Pay will adjust its fee policy. Excess withdrawals from small change to bank cards will be subject to a certain fee. The specific fee standard is that starting from March 1, each user (based on ID card) will have a lifetime cumulative free withdrawal limit of 1,000 yuan. The amount exceeding 1,000 yuan will be charged a fee based on the bank rate. The current rate is 0.1%, with a minimum charge of 0.1 yuan per transaction. For example, after March 1, if a user wants to withdraw 1,000 yuan from WeChat small change to a bank card, a fee of 1 yuan will be charged.

In other words, as long as it involves the withdrawal of change funds, a certain fee will be charged. For example, the amount of WeChat red envelopes and WeChat transfers received will be automatically transferred to WeChat change. Even if WeChat change is used to purchase Wealth Management, a fee will be charged when withdrawing funds. WeChat explained that if you use change to purchase Wealth Management, the funds will be returned to change when you redeem them, and there will be a fee for withdrawing funds from change to a bank card. If you use a bank card to purchase Wealth Management, the funds will be returned to the bank card when you redeem them, so there is no withdrawal fee.

As for the lifetime free withdrawal limit of 1,000 yuan, WeChat explained that the balance in most users' wallets is less than 1,000 yuan. Transfers are free, but withdrawals are charged. What is WeChat's plan? An insider of a third-party payment institution told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that charging a fee for transfers is actually meaningless, and most transfers can be made using WeChat red envelopes.

The official response is to cover the costs

WeChat’s “surprise” has left many users frustrated as they have just filled their wallets with red envelopes during the Spring Festival. However, they now have to pay a fee to withdraw cash. WeChat’s explanation is that charging for withdrawals is not a revenue-generating move for WeChat Pay, but is used to pay bank fees. In fact, for every transfer and withdrawal transaction of WeChat Pay, banks will charge WeChat Pay a transaction fee regardless of the amount. The WeChat Pay team is actively communicating with banks to strive to make transfer and withdrawal transactions completely free of charge as soon as possible.

In this regard, Ba Shusong, deputy director of the Financial Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, questioned on Sina Weibo, "Withdrawing cash is a deposit into a bank account, will the bank charge a fee?" However, a bank official who did not want to be named said that although such a statement was intended to shirk responsibility, it was basically true. According to his understanding, many banks, out of economic principles, would not allow WeChat to only earn benefits while taking risks, so they would indeed charge fees. However, another commercial bank official said that not every commercial bank charges fees. If a withdrawal of 0.01 yuan is charged, isn't that a bit too overbearing?

Many analysts said that the real purpose of WeChat's withdrawal fee is to build the WeChat payment ecosystem. A WeChat insider also said that WeChat has many application scenarios for consumption.

Ma Tao, research director of the Financial Industry Center of iResearch, told the Beijing Business Daily that one of the reasons for WeChat Pay to charge transfer fees is to consider the health of its own payment ecosystem. In the past, many merchants used transfers to complete settlements in order to save handling fees. This withdrawal fee may also be to build a healthy payment ecosystem and restrict the above phenomenon. From a regulatory perspective, the regulatory approach requires that there should not be too much capital deposited in the virtual accounts of third-party payment, because such funds are not easy to regulate.

In fact, while WeChat Pay became popular due to WeChat red envelopes, it also set up a variety of application scenarios in the "wallet", such as mobile phone recharge, credit card repayment, financial management, and daily life payment. However, its user stickiness has always been weak, and more users are still accustomed to going to banks or Alipay to complete consumption in similar application scenarios.

Alipay and Baidu Wallet will not follow up for now

After WeChat released the announcement, it was immediately criticized by many users, who said that if WeChat charged a withdrawal fee, it would turn to other third-party payment institutions such as Alipay. Some people also believe that WeChat's move is to push users to third-party payment institutions such as Alipay.

A senior analyst in the third-party payment industry said that WeChat Pay’s main competitor is Alipay. In the absence of a competitive strategy by Alipay, WeChat Pay’s move is still very risky. Mainly speaking, it will have a certain impact on WeChat transfers.

However, the bank official who did not want to be named said that the move of charging for cash withdrawals on WeChat Pay will not cause a large number of users to leave. WeChat Pay is mainly based on small-amount, high-frequency social transfer payments, and the demand for cash withdrawals itself is relatively small. In terms of social transfers, WeChat occupies a large market position, including this year when Alipay spent a lot of money to cooperate with CCTV to send red envelopes, but in fact about 70% of the red envelopes are still completed through WeChat Pay. From the user's point of view, it is unlikely that WeChat Pay will stop using WeChat Pay just because it charges a 10 cent handling fee.

Third-party payment institutions such as Alipay and Baidu Wallet still adhere to the free policy for user transfer and withdrawal functions. Yesterday, Alipay responded to the Beijing Business Daily reporter that they currently have no plans to charge withdrawal fees.

"For Alipay, they don't charge fees because they don't have to go through the bank channel." The above-mentioned bank official who did not want to be named said. He said that Alipay has its own online clearing rules. However, according to the regulations on interbank payments by third-party payment, in principle, this practice is not allowed, and the central bank does not allow it to have its own set of interbank payment and clearing rules. Now the regulatory authorities have made some compromises, allowing Class A institutions that meet certain conditions to transfer money to non-individuals, which is a way out for some relatively large transfers.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.