Huaxia Bank accused of excessive collection: calls to relatives and friends are made during the month of overdue payments

DoNews March 10 Report: According to Taishan Finance, in 2024, Mr. Qiu from Guangdong took out a 140,000 yuan loan using a Huaxia Bank credit card to start a business. He repaid over 5,000 yuan each month. Later, due to poor management leading to business failure and financial difficulties, Mr. Qiu was fortunate to negotiate with the bank in 2025 and reach a minimum repayment plan, reducing his monthly payments to a few hundred yuan.

At the beginning of 2026, the bank suddenly informed Mr. Qiu that the policy had been canceled. Despite multiple attempts to explain his financial hardship and request to continue the policy, bank staff refused, stating the policy duration was only one year.

Faced with a monthly repayment of over 5,000 yuan again, Mr. Qiu found it difficult to make payments. However, in the first month after being unable to pay in full, collection calls flooded in.

“Every day I receive dozens of calls and messages, some of which are from people claiming to be bank staff,” Mr. Li said. What’s even more unacceptable is that collection calls and messages continued to be sent to his friends and family. “This caused great trouble for my friends and family and also severely affected my mental health.”

Mr. Li questioned why, despite maintaining communication and not losing contact, the bank resorted to such joint collection methods involving his relatives. He also asked whether these collection actions were directly carried out by bank employees or entrusted to third-party companies.

According to Article 68 of the “Supervision and Administration Measures for Commercial Bank Credit Card Business” (referred to as “Measures”), collection efforts “can only target the cardholder and guarantor, and it is strictly forbidden to harass unrelated third parties, use violence, coercion, intimidation, or insults. Collection must be recorded.”

Additionally, Article 70 of the Measures states that in special circumstances, if the credit card debt exceeds the cardholder’s repayment ability but the cardholder still wishes to repay, the issuing bank can negotiate with the cardholder on an equal basis to reach a personalized installment repayment agreement. The maximum term for such an agreement shall not exceed five years.

Recently, questions have been raised about whether the bank’s collection practices are compliant, whether there are supervisory and monitoring mechanisms over outsourced collection companies, and why the maximum five-year period has been shortened to one year. A reporter sent inquiries to Huaxia Bank’s headquarters but had not received a response as of press time.