Reducing Credit Card Delinquency using Broadcast Repayment Reminders

A timely reminder on an app or website prompts delinquent credit card debtors with strong credit records to repay but is ineffective for debtors with weak credit records. We study field data from a 2015-16 randomized controlled trial of a broadcast reminder received by 30-days-overdue credit card debtors who log into the app or website of their credit provider. On average, the treated debtors were 2.7 percentage points more likely to repay all arrears than debtors in the control group. However, the effect of the repayment reminder depended on the debtor type; the broadcast reminder significantly raised repayment rates of high credit score delinquent debtors but did not significantly raise, and may have lowered, the repayment rate of lower credit score delinquents