Huabei announces the first "Spring Festival Travel Installment Interest-free Plan" in China: 1 billion yuan in subsidies for Spring Festival travel

Huabei announced the official launch of the "Spring Festival Travel Interest-Free Installment Plan". After users search for "Spring Festival Travel" on Alipay to receive Huabei's interest-free installment coupon, they can purchase train tickets in installments on 12306.

Fliggy also supports the Spring Festival travel rush. Users can also purchase train tickets on Fliggy with interest-free installments. At the same time, all domestic routes also support interest-free purchases in three installments with Huabei after receiving the coupon. In other words, whether you go home by train or plane, you can get the ticket first and pay next year!

1 billion yuan budget to subsidize Spring Festival travel ticket purchase plan

Starting from December 16, people who buy train tickets on 12306 with a price between 100 and 2,000 yuan, or buy domestic air tickets on Fliggy, can choose to pay in three installments, with no handling fees. This part of the cost will be borne entirely by Huabei, and it is estimated that Huabei will set aside at least 1 billion yuan to subsidize the Spring Festival travel ticket purchase plan.

I have personally tested and found that before buying train tickets, you can first search for "Spring Festival Travel" on Alipay, receive the Huabei interest-free installment coupon, then log in to the 12306 App, select the train number and submit the order, and choose Alipay Huabei installment when paying. The default payment is 3 months, with 0 handling fees.

At present, ticket purchase for the 2020 Spring Festival railway travel has started. According to statistics from China Railway Corporation, about 440 million people will travel by rail, and the peak number of ticket purchases per day is expected to reach 15 million. The 12306 website and mobile client will play the role of the main ticket sales channel, and many passengers choose to use Huabei to pay to reduce capital occupation.

In fact, during last year's Spring Festival travel rush, Huabei teamed up with Ele.me, Cainiao, and Ant Financial for the first time to launch a pilot program of interest-free installment subsidies for migrant workers during the Spring Festival travel rush, helping food delivery riders, couriers, code merchants and other migrant workers to reduce the burden of ticket purchases. After the pilot program was launched, about 3 million migrant workers used the subsidy when buying tickets.

"During the trial operation last year, the demand for installment ticket purchases exceeded our expectations. This year, Huabei decided to provide 1 billion yuan in subsidies to all people, hoping to make life more relaxed for everyone who lives seriously," said Shao Wenlan, general manager of Ant Financial's Huabei business unit.

It is reported that in addition to the interest-free subsidies for Spring Festival ticket purchases, Huabei jointly established a 500 million yuan education special fund with merchants in December last year, providing interest-free installment subsidies for the expenses of professional training such as auto repair, electrician, and housekeeping for adult users under the age of 45 in 2019. It is expected that this education special fund will provide support for 10 million people throughout the year, lowering the threshold for young people to receive education. In the future, Huabei will also launch interest-free subsidies in more areas of people's livelihood, such as health examinations, medical treatment, and tuition fees.

Practicing social responsibility and guiding service entities

At present, it has become a consensus in the industry that consumer finance should take into account both commercial responsibility and social responsibility. Consumer finance should guide service entities, and supporting rational and healthy consumption through innovation has also become a corporate development goal. The rapid development of scenario-based consumer credit such as Huabei shows that my country's consumer credit demand is strong and the supply of financial services is insufficient. On the other hand, the further popularization of such consumer finance products has also promoted the sinking of consumption and become a new driving force for domestic demand.

According to the 2019 China Consumer Finance Development Report released by the National Financial and Development Laboratory, the current rate of access to consumer finance in my country is low, with nearly 40% of adults still having never received consumer financial services, and the rate of access to consumer finance is far lower than that in developed countries (over 80%). Huabei data shows that Huabei has effectively alleviated the problem of low access to consumer financial services in low-tier cities and released the consumption capacity of residents in third-tier and lower cities. In 2018, Huabei increased consumption in third-tier and lower cities by 16%-20%.

It is worth mentioning that "Double 11" is a peak in consumption and a peak in demand for consumer finance. In the early stage of "Double 11" in 2019, 40% of Huabei's merchant services were inquiries about opening Huabei, and the number of inquiries doubled compared to usual. Huabei's data shows that during non-"Double 11" periods, after merchants open Huabei, the transaction volume can increase by an average of 38%, and the average number of transaction users increases by 32%. This effect is more obvious during the "Double 11" period: during the Tmall Double 11 pre-sale period, driven by Huabei installment payments, the categories with the fastest growth in transaction volume were personal cleaning, pet products, and health foods, with increases of 20 times, 5 times, and 4.6 times, respectively.

According to analysts, Internet consumer finance platforms have established digital credit for hundreds of millions of "credit-free households" in my country through mobile payment, big data and other technologies, breaking through the bottleneck of traditional credit models, thereby improving the overall consumer finance access rate and solving the problem of inclusive finance. The above report also pointed out that consumer finance can expand domestic demand and drive consumption, and there is still a lot of room for development in the next five years. It is expected that on-balance sheet consumer finance may account for more than 25% of the total credit scale.

It is understood that the main group of people served by Huabei are the "backbone" of society. More than one-third of users are between 30 and 40 years old. They deposit their wages into Yu'ebao to earn income and use Huabei to reduce capital occupation. This has become a habit for them to live frugally. Data shows that more than half of Huabei's users have a credit limit of less than 2,000 yuan, and more than 30% of users have a credit limit of less than 1,000 yuan. Three-quarters of people who use Huabei have never paid fees or interest, and more than 90% of people will not use up their credit limit.

The 2020 Spring Festival travel ticket rush kicked off on December 12. This year, whether you buy train tickets or air tickets, you can use Huabei's interest-free installment payment.