Tapping and Waving to Debt : Mobile Payments and Credit Card Behavior

This study investigates whether the use of mobile payment technology is associated with individuals' credit card (mis-)behavior. Using a sample of more than 25,000 US households, we find that individuals using their smartphones to conduct mobile payments are more likely to exhibit costly credit card behavior. In addition, conditional on using mobile payments, our results provide some evidence that the frequency of mobile payment usage further increases individuals' likelihood to exhibit costly credit card behavior. Our findings suggest that innovative payment methods may come at the cost of increases in individuals' overall spending with adverse effects for the US economy