90-year-old Mrs. Liu could not find a small phone bill recharge channel, so she could only switch back to the elderly machine. This is not an isolated case, but a consumption dilemma that is affecting hundreds of millions of users. "Just just wanted to charge the backup machine for 20 yuan, click on the recharge interface of WeChat wallet. The 10 yuan and 20 yuan options that were often selected were suddenly gone, and there were several gears on the screen, including 50 yuan, 100 yuan, and 200 yuan."

Many users recently discovered that the recharge threshold for phone fees on commonly used payment platforms such as WeChat, Alipay, and Cloud Flash Pay has quietly increased to 50 yuan. The minimum recharge amount of some platforms even reaches 100 yuan. At the same time, the operator's official APP still provides small recharge services. This differentiated setting has aroused consumers' doubts about the "digital divide" and "consumption fairness".

01 Recharge threshold generally rises, third-party platforms set limits

The 10 yuan and 20 yuan phone bill recharge options that were once everywhere have now disappeared from mainstream payment platforms. The reporter investigated the current status of phone bill recharges on more than ten platforms and found that most platforms can no longer charge small amounts or custom phone bills. The phone fee recharge interface of large payment platforms such as WeChat and Alipay is basically starting at 50 yuan, and some platforms even have a minimum recharge of 100 yuan.

In the operator's official WeChat mini program, it must be charged at least 50 yuan. Only the operator's official APP becomes the "last pure land" of small recharges. On the official APP of the three major operators, users can still perform small recharges or enter custom amounts. This differentiated channel setting has aroused widespread doubts among consumers.

02 Special groups are affected, the digital divide is intensifying

The increase in the recharge threshold has had a completely different impact on different groups. The experience of 90-year-old Mrs. Liu is quite representative. At the beginning, the child taught her to charge phone bills on her mobile phone, but the buttons were complicated, with 500 yuan or 300 yuan. Presbyopia couldn't see clearly and could not find a channel for low-priced recharge. In the end, she could only use it with the elderly.

The student group also faces difficulties. Some students spend less than 50 yuan per month on phone bills. After being forced to recharge 50 yuan, the remaining amount can only be idle in their accounts for a long time. The same is true for users who use backup machines. The mobile phone is used to collect verification codes. The monthly phone bill does not exceed 10 yuan. Now it is forced to charge 50 yuan, which may not be used up for half a year. Low-consumption users are forced to adjust their consumption patterns. In order to save phone bills, Ms. Gao, 25, used two cards to separate traffic and call. "After the small recharge was cancelled, she was forced to merge numbers, and now her monthly phone bill has increased from 50 yuan to more than 100 yuan."

03 Shifting responsibility is a trend, and consumers have no way to protect their rights

In the face of consumer doubts, operators and platforms played the "skipping ball" game. Platforms such as WeChat and Alipay have pushed the responsibility to operators, saying that "the recharge denomination is provided by major operators." The operators responded vaguely. China Telecom customer service said: "It is all set up by the platform, and you need to ask about the platform for details." China Mobile customer service explained that although the WeChat mini program stated "official platform for mobile phone bill recharge", it actually belongs to the WeChat platform.

China Unicom's response is more ambiguous - WeChat mini-programs actually "do not belong to China Unicom's official, they can only be said to have official elements." This shirking of responsibility has left consumers with no way to protect their rights. Mr. Li’s experience in rights protection is quite representative: Jiangsu 12345 responded that “out of the acceptance scope, look for the local department of the platform”; Nanjing 12315 stated that “complaint operators look for the Communications Administration Bureau, complaint platform look for the local department”; Shenzhen 12315 (WeChat local) suggested “call Tencent customer service”; Communications Administration directly stated that “find the regulatory department where the platform is located.”

04 The business logic behind it, the game between cost and benefit

After delving into the industry logic behind it, the elevated recharge threshold is a deformed product of "traffic anxiety" and "cost transfer". For operators, by raising the recharge threshold of third-party channels, users can be forced to download the official APP, and then deposit users into their own ecosystem, making it easier to push package upgrades and value-added services in the subsequent push package. An insider of an operator revealed that the user activity of the official APP is directly linked to the package conversion rate. "Burning 100 users to download the APP can bring about 15 package upgrade orders." This calculation of "exchange traffic with thresholds" completely ignores users' usage habits and convenience needs.

The income from capital precipitation is more considerable. There are 1.815 billion mobile phone users nationwide. Even if each person deposits an additional 50 yuan in the account due to the increase in the recharge threshold, it will add up to a "interest-free fund pool" of more than 90 billion yuan. This money is nominally the user's, but it is actually dominated by the operator. If you put it on the bank and eat current interest, you can earn more than 200 million yuan a year; if you use it for short-term financial management, the income can be more than ten times more.

05 Legal experts' opinion, suspected of infringing on consumer rights

Zhao Liangshan, senior partner and public welfare lawyer at Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm, believes that the three major operators cancel low-priced packages on commonly used recharge platforms without any law, infringing on consumers' right to choose independently, or constitute "forced transactions." Article 9 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law clearly stipulates that consumers have the right to independently choose goods or services. Article 26 stipulates that operators shall not make unfair and unreasonable provisions on consumers such as excluding or restricting consumer rights, reducing or exempting operators from liability, and aggravating consumer responsibilities through standard terms, notices, statements, store notices, etc.

Wu Shan, partner of Shanghai Bohe Hanshang Law Firm, pointed out that if the operator closes all small recharge channels, it is a "disguised forced" user to accept a recharge of 50 yuan, which should constitute a "forced transaction".

06 Solutions and Outlook

It is not technically difficult to solve this problem when supervision and corporate responsibility coexist. Shanghai Mobile has tried "small order batch processing" and reduced the cost of recharge of 10 yuan by more than 40%, proving that as long as you are willing to invest, the cost problem can be solved. Platforms and operators should also do some "concertative optimization". Third-party platforms can add a "small quick portal". Elderly users click on the recharge interface and automatically display the 10 yuan and 20 yuan options. Operators need to simplify the operation process of the official APP and support one-click login for WeChat and Alipay.

Regulatory intervention is also crucial. Consumer associations in the two places have made a statement: Beijing and Hangzhou Consumer Associations call on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to interview operators and require the opening of third-party small-scale interfaces. The National People's Congress representatives have also proposed: the Tianjin delegation plans to submit the "Communication Services Small Recharge Guarantee Act", which recommends that the 10 yuan recharge be included in the basic services. In the first half of this year, the net profits of the three major operators combined exceeded 110 billion yuan. The "small order batch processing" method piloted by Shanghai Mobile successfully reduced the cost of recharge of 10 yuan by more than 40%.

Technical difficulties are not insurmountable, and the balance between business interests and user rights needs to be reexamined. The real "freedom of phone bill" is not that you can only choose between 50 yuan or 100 yuan, but that if you want to charge 10 yuan, you can charge 10 yuan, and if you want to charge 20 yuan, you can charge 20 yuan. This is not only the basic right of consumers, but also an important yardstick for measuring the quality of services in digital society.