Not very clear. "" We only recognize coupons. "Recently, when faced with the issue of exchanging credit card rights between Ping An Bank and Luckin Coffee, employees at several Luckin Coffee shops in Beijing gave similar responses.
According to official information from Ping An Bank, by the end of 2025 and early April 2026, the bank will have launched the Yuntong and UnionPay versions of Ping An Bank's Luckin Coffee co branded credit card, which features basic rights linked to Luckin Coffee and has attracted a large number of users.
However, recently, many users complained about "roast" on social platforms and third-party complaint platforms, such as shrinking core interests of the card, opaque rule adjustment, unreasonable compensation scheme, etc.
Recently, when the reporter inquired about applying for a card, Ping An Bank staff no longer recommended applying for this card and instead recommended other credit cards. In the eyes of industry insiders, domestic credit cards have entered the era of stock, and differentiated operations are becoming increasingly important. However, banks themselves should abandon the mechanism of excessively pursuing KPIs in the past, avoid service disconnection, and truly achieve refined management.
Why are there so many flaws in the 'Coffee God Card'
Overall, there are two main issues reported by Ping An Bank Luckin Credit Card users: firstly, the actual benefits of the co branded card have decreased compared to the welfare value advertised by the bank during card issuance; The second issue is that the redemption rules for co branded card benefits have been adjusted multiple times and users have not been fully informed.
At present, multiple banks such as Postal Savings Bank of China, Huaxia Bank, and Ping An Bank can apply for joint cards with Luckin Coffee. As of July 15th, when searching for keywords such as "Luckin" and "credit card" on a third-party consumer service platform, the reporter found more than 100 related complaints, most of which involved the adjustment of the rights and interests of Ping An Bank's Luckin joint credit card.
For example, a user complained on a certain platform on July 12th that they applied for a Ping An Bank Luckin joint credit card on April 2, 2026. The core incentive for applying for the card was the bank's omnichannel promotion of the first phase of the "Zhou Zhou Gift" benefits: 5 online purchases of ≥ 18 yuan per week, and the next week they can directly receive 2 free 29 yuan Luckin full redemption coupons without points, which can be used for a long time. After activation, I have consistently met the weekly consumption standards as required, but Ping An Bank has not provided me with any advance or significant notification through SMS, APP pop ups, or electronic bills. The activity rules have been unilaterally and silently tampered with in three instances: in May 2026, the 29 yuan full redemption voucher will be changed to a 17 yuan small deduction voucher, and additional price differences will be required for large drinks; In June 2026, without notice, the validity period of the coffee voucher was shortened from several years to 7 days after receiving it. I hoarded a large number of vouchers and they expired and became invalid, causing a loss of rights and interests; In July 2026, the second phase of the rules will be launched, completely canceling free coupon redemption. After meeting the standards, a large number of credit card points must be consumed to redeem vouchers, and the originally promoted free coffee benefits will be essentially invalidated.
According to the previous promotion of two cards (coupons) per week, which can be redeemed for one year, the loss can reach (29-17) * 2 * 52 weeks, which can be calculated as 1248 yuan. "Another platform complained that a user compared the rules before and after the adjustment of co branded cards in late May, and believed that the bank had significantly reduced the rights and interests of cardholders, involving false advertising." It can be completely understood as an operation to reduce activity after attracting a wave of new users.
What is the specific situation? The statement made by Ping An Bank customer service personnel to some extent confirms the rule adjustment path mentioned by the aforementioned user. According to its introduction, the coffee voucher redemption rules for Ping An Bank's Luckin Coffee co branded credit card have indeed been adjusted multiple times. In the early stage, users who completed 5 purchases of 18 yuan or more per week could receive 2 Luckin Coffee 29 yuan redemption vouchers; There have been several "minor adjustments" in the middle, including reducing the amount of exchange coupons to 17 yuan; After the expiration of the original "Zhou Zhou Li" activity, starting from July, it will be adjusted to complete 5 purchases per week (unlimited amount) to qualify for redemption, but consumption points must be used to redeem coupons.
The above customer service personnel emphasized that for cardholders, the latest rules are "easier to meet" compared to the previous rules. But this differs from the self description of many users. If a user mentions on a third-party complaint platform: "I strictly completed the consumption task within the natural cycle from the end of June to the beginning of July, and the system has calculated and met the standards, and generated 2 coffee redemption qualifications. When I was preparing to redeem benefits, the platform suddenly added a redemption threshold for deducting credit card points. My credit card points are only 12 points, which does not meet the redemption standard and cannot receive the benefits that I should have enjoyed
The reporter saw on the Ping An Bank Pocket Banking App that the basic rights of the Ping An Bank Luckin joint credit card (UnionPay version) are still "New Account Weekly Gifts", which means "Two Luckin cups per week for weekly consumption". According to a staff member from a branch of the bank in Beijing, the specific redemption rules are as follows: credit card consumption points of 99, 199, and 299 can be redeemed for 1 beverage voucher worth 16 yuan, 18 yuan, and 20 yuan, respectively. Credit card consumption points of 399 can be redeemed for 1 full beverage voucher.
The calculation rules for points are crucial. According to the customer service staff of Ping An Bank, for users who hold a savings card with an average daily asset (not limited to deposits) of at least 1000 yuan in the previous month, 30 points will be awarded for every 30 yuan (4 US dollars) spent in a single transaction; For those who do not hold a savings card or account with the bank, the average daily assets of the previous month
According to the customer service representative of Luckin Coffee, it is still acceptable for users to receive coffee exchange vouchers from Ping An Bank. Other customers mostly exchange 17 yuan beverage exchange vouchers, and emphasize that coffee vouchers "have an expiration date" and cannot be extended once they expire. It is recommended to redeem them as soon as possible after receiving them.
What do banks and coffee shops say
So, why make the above adjustments? Which side is responsible? Ping An Bank and Luckin Coffee have different opinions on this matter.
Regarding why the face value of the coffee exchange voucher was reduced from 29 yuan to 17 yuan, Ping An Bank customer service personnel stated that due to the linkage between the coffee voucher and the merchant, Luckin Coffee made some adjustments at that time, and the bank made synchronous adjustments based on this. The change of the redemption eligibility from synchronously limiting the number of consumption transactions+consumption amount to only limiting the number of consumption transactions+unlimited consumption amount+points is to ensure the authenticity of consumption, as many customers in the early stage had false consumption situations in order to meet the standards for coupon collection, including refunds next week after consumption in the current week.
After the normal expiration of the validity period of our Luckin Card weekly gift activity, there are differences between the new activity and the original activity. The main reason is that our partner Luckin has adjusted the pricing system and exchange categories. After Luckin launched a nationwide price adjustment on May 1st, we fully protected the rights and interests of consumers and decided to cooperate with the other party's pace to carry out Luckin Card weekly gift activities on a monthly basis to avoid price and category changes during the validity period of the activity, which may cause customer losses. At the same time, in response to the price increase of some Luckin Card categories, our bank continues to optimize the activity plan, adding more types of coupons such as' all day beverage exchange coupons' to better meet customer needs, "said a customer service representative of Ping An Bank. The" New Household Weekly Gift "activity is carried out according to the cycle, and the initial activity time is from June 1st to June 30th, The target audience of the event is new Luckin joint card holders between December 29, 2025 and June 30, 2026. However, this time period was not displayed on the event poster at the time because it is impossible to predict in advance when the subsequent cycle of the event will be carried out.
Luckin Coffee customer service representatives stated that Luckin Coffee did adjust product pricing and upgraded its coupon system and redemption rules around the end of April. But as for the specific coupon rules for Ping An Bank credit cards, cardholders need to consult with Ping An Bank.
According to feedback from some users on social media platforms, Ping An Bank proposed to provide certain compensation to some customers after the rule adjustment caused their dissatisfaction, but most users still find it difficult to express satisfaction. The common concern is whether the rules can be restored to their original state? This is not necessarily the case, whether there will be any further changes in future activities depends on the updates from the platform, "said a customer service representative of Ping An Bank. The latest rule of activity time is from July 1, 2026 to January 3, 2027, but it is not ruled out that there may be further adjustments in the middle.
When the reporter inquired about applying for a card recently, Ping An Bank customer service personnel and branch staff no longer recommend the Luckin joint card. I don't recommend you to apply for (Luckin joint card) anymore. The activities are not as good as before, so it's not very suitable. It's better to consider other options, "said the staff of the aforementioned branch. Many customers have reported that the joint card between the bank and Luckin is" not as good as before ".
In the eyes of industry insiders, such disputes precisely reflect the importance of refined management in the era of credit card stock. Industry insiders have told reporters that there is still a lot of space in the domestic credit card market, especially in the high-end credit card market. However, as we enter the second half of the industry, we need to strengthen our refined operational thinking and get rid of problems such as service disconnection, lack of risk control, and product homogenization caused by excessive pursuit of KPIs. Especially in the face of market saturation and economic downturn, the domestic credit card model that heavily relies on installment interest will face significant challenges, and transitioning to an annual fee model is an important way out.
According to data from the central bank, as of the end of the first quarter of this year, there were 687 million credit cards and combined debit and credit cards in China. This quantity is about 120 million fewer than the peak of 807 million in the third quarter of 2022. In the view of Liao Zhiming, Chief Analyst of Huayuan Securities Bank, China's credit card business may have entered the era of the Red Sea.
According to data from Huayuan Securities, from 2022 to 2025, the growth rate of credit card transactions in some state-owned large banks and listed joint-stock banks will show a weakening trend, with the overall trend shifting from positive to negative. The year-on-year growth rate of industry credit card transaction volume/consumption in 2024 has basically entered a negative growth range, with Everbright Bank leading the decline at -29%; Industrial Bank, Ping An Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, and Bank of Communications all experienced a decline of over 12%; In 2025, the year-on-year growth rate of credit card transactions in various banks will further decrease to the range of -14% to -7%.
Based on the trend of credit card issuance by various listed banks in recent years, Liao Zhiming mentioned that some banks have stopped disclosing credit card issuance data, which may indirectly reflect that the bank's business assessment orientation is becoming more scientific and is beginning to transform from heavy scale to heavy quality.
(Intern Lin Hanyu also contributed to this article)
(This article is from First Financial)
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