Online Loan Black Market Intermediaries
Again came across the loan-renewal issue and verified that industry practitioners indeed mention resetting the principal midway and re-establishing credit (meaning you get charged a fee of around 1.5% each time they come knocking).
The other套路 is straightforward: the upfront fee looks low, but they pad the contract with intermediary service charges of a few points per month, collected for the entire loan term—adding up to nearly 20 points in total.
Another slick move: posing as banks to coach you through the application, then pocketing the bank-side commission by steering you into loans you don’t actually need (since the commission is triggered simply by securing credit approval, regardless of whether you draw down).
The most brazen version involves强势中介 who control the disbursement themselves. They charge about 8 points in guarantee fees, their channel partners another 8 points, and on a 120,000 RMB limit, they deduct all those fees upfront—leaving you with an effective deal that’s nearly 9-for-13.