Banks' consumer loans raise interest rates in advance, more low-interest products hidden in "discount tracks"

Bank consumer loans seem to be the first financial products to "raise interest rates" this year.

As the clock and calendar move into April, more and more banks are reporting that the interest rates on consumer loans are no longer increasing.

The four major state-owned banks, leading joint-stock banks, and top city commercial banks have all begun to stop issuing consumer loan products with ultra-low interest rates (below 3%), which means that in public, related loan interest rates have already surpassed 3%.

Will bank loan interest rates thus enter an "upward channel"?

High-leverage customers "face challenges"

Zhou Guangpeng (pseudonym, hereinafter referred to as Xiao Zhou) is a "tech geek" at an internet company in Beijing. As a landlord of two houses and bearer of two mortgages, he has recently been contemplating "increasing leverage."

Increasing leverage is not to find more investment opportunities, but to alleviate temporary cash flow pressure. It is reported that Xiao Zhou spends his entire monthly salary on repaying his mortgages in Beijing and his hometown. He revealed that after paying off the loans, he is nearly "living paycheck to paycheck."

Xiao Zhou doesn't need to be too anxious, but after seeing the DeepSeek craze during this year's Spring Festival, he firmly believes in the Chinese equity market and has been continuously increasing his holdings in ETF funds, which has made his cash flow particularly tight.

If it weren't for successfully applying for a consumer loan with an interest rate of only 2.55% in March, the pressure on Zhou Guangpeng's cash pocket would be even greater.

High-leverage customers "mixed feelings"

However, the overall cost of financing from banks for Xiao Zhou is continuously rising.

At the beginning of April this year, Xiao Zhou received clear confirmation that consumer loans with an annual interest rate below 3% may become increasingly rare for a considerable period in the future.

At the same time, major banks are continuously lowering deposit interest rates... this has increased the pressure on high-leverage Xiao Zhou.

Consumer loans, also known as consumer credit, refer to loans issued by commercial banks to individuals or families for the purpose of purchasing durable consumer goods or services (such as education, medical care, tourism), etc. Such loans are often not allowed to be used for production and investment purposes but enjoy more interest rate discounts.

More financial institutions "raise interest rates"

According to public information compiled by Zhitang, several banks have recently raised the annual interest rates on consumer loan products.

For example, the annual interest rate of "Bank of China E-loan" has been raised from 2.72% to 3.1% (excluding customers enjoying the interest rate policy in Tibet), with a maximum approved amount of 300,000 yuan; the minimum interest rate of the "Flexible Smart Loan" product has risen from 2.85% to at least 3.00%, but the specific interest rate situation can only be determined after assessment.

The annual interest rate of China Merchants Bank's "Lightning Loan" has been raised from 2.55% to starting at 3.05%. The maximum loan amount is 300,000 yuan. The minimum annual interest rates for consumer loan products from Agricultural Bank of China, Minsheng Bank, and Citic Baixin Bank have all increased to 3.1%, while Citic Bank's "Xinyuan Loan" has a minimum annual interest rate of 4.35%, but it indicates that qualified customers have preferential interest rates.

Among city commercial banks, the interest rates of consumer loan products from leading city commercial banks in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions have also risen to the level of 3% per year In addition to raising annual interest rates, some banks have adjusted the limits on consumer loans. For example, China Construction Bank has increased the interest rate on related products to 3%, with a unified limit adjusted to 300,000 yuan, while the corresponding limit from Citic Baixin Bank is 200,000 yuan. Additionally, the "Phoenix E Loan" from Beijing Rural Commercial Bank currently has a maximum limit of 600,000 yuan.

“Price War” Comes to a Halt

Industry insiders believe that the reason banks are "raising interest rates" against the trend may be due to window guidance. Some reports indicate that relevant parties have requested that commercial banks' loan interest rates should not be lower than an annualized 3%, and newly granted loans will also face interest rate adjustments.

Earlier this year, in order to compete for "high-quality customers," various banks had launched various "discounted" annual interest rates for consumer loan products, with some going as low as below 3%.

According to monitoring data from Rong360 Digital Technology Research Institute, the average minimum executable interest rate for online consumer loans from national banks in February 2025 was 2.91%.

At the same time, major banks also have periodic promotional consumer loan interest rates targeting specific regions or consumption directions. The "limited-time discount" product that Zhou Guangpeng secured at the beginning of this article is one such product with an interest rate of 2.55%.

In March of this year, several large banks also joined this "discount war." In addition to China Merchants Bank mentioned above, the minimum interest rates for promotional loans from Minsheng Bank and Bank of Communications dropped to 2.55%, 2.58%, and 2.85%, respectively. Furthermore, there were reports that some city commercial banks launched "extreme discount" products with interest rates as low as 2.4%.

Additionally, a practitioner in the consumer finance industry told Zhitongcaijing that some banks have launched products with interest rates close to 2% for individuals with excellent qualifications (especially focusing on workplace and annual salary levels). However, this individual refused to disclose the specific information of the involved banks.

In this competitive landscape, some banks not only "lowered" interest rates but also raised limits. A local bank in Jiangsu Province once raised the maximum limit of related loan products to 1 million yuan.

“Special Supply Products” Still Exist

With the efforts of the "visible hand," the promotional loan interest rate products from various banks have gradually disappeared in the short term.

However, behind the scenes, the banner of "discounts" still stands. A customer manager from a bank in northern China reported that the annual interest rate for the bank's consumer loan products is around 3.07%.

This customer manager emphasized that the current requirements for consumer loans are higher than those for online loans, requiring the review of credit reports, social security, and housing fund payment proofs. If customers have borrowing records from platforms like JD White Bar, Huabei, or Jiebei, the approval threshold will be even higher.

It is worth noting that there are still relatively "low-interest" consumer loan products in the market, leaving room for survival.

"If your credit record is very good and your monthly housing fund contribution exceeds 1,800 yuan (the contribution amounts from both employee and employer), we can issue you a coupon, and the (consumer loan) annual interest rate will only be 2.9%," this customer fund manager told Zhitongcaijing For consumer loan products with a larger "discount," this client manager revealed the following application thresholds:

"The monthly provident fund contribution must be above 4,000 yuan (the contributions from both the employee and the company), and we also need to consider the qualifications of your employer; the annual interest rate can be even lower."

On April 18th, a social media platform provided a guide for workers to obtain consumer loans with interest rates below 3%, indicating that this is an exclusive channel for employees of state-owned enterprises, public institutions, and large tech companies.

It mentioned difficult-to-pass "forbidden zone" scenarios, such as having borrowing records from online platforms like Jiebei or Weili Dai in the past three months, and applicants need to "maintain their credit" for three months after settling small loans before reapplying.

Consumer funds cannot flow into the stock market

Further research by Zhi Shi Tang found that in March this year, major banks intensified "interest rate competition" for consumer loan products, which is related to a policy document but is filled with misunderstandings and arbitrage.

In mid-March, the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice on "Developing Consumer Finance to Boost Consumption," which mentioned:

Commercial banks can phase the upper limit of self-paid amounts for personal consumer loans for clients with good credit and significant consumption needs from 300,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan.

For clients with long-term consumption needs, the loan term for personal consumption can be extended from no more than 5 years to no more than 7 years.

This "misunderstanding" indirectly led to individuals like Zhou Guangpeng at the beginning of this article attempting to use consumer loans to "leverage" operations, channeling funds into the stock and real estate markets, which violates the original intention of consumer loans, and such behavior is now being corrected accordingly