Is financial literacy a substitute or complement for financial advice? In this paper we analyze the decision by consumers to seek financial advice in the form of credit counseling concerning their credit and debt. Credit counseling is an important component of the consumer credit sector for...

We use UK household survey data incorporating measures of financial literacy and behavioural characteristics to analyse the puzzling co-existence of high cost revolving consumer credit alongside low yield liquid savings in household balance sheets, which we term the 'co-holding puzzle'....

This paper examines the relationship between self-control, financial literacy and over-indebtedness on consumer credit debt among a sample of U.K. consumers using data from a household survey. Both lack of self-control and financial illiteracy are positively associated with non-payment of...

We utilise questions concerning individual ‘debt literacy' incorporated into market research data on households' unsecured debt positions to examine the association between consumer credit and individual financial literacy. We examine the relationship between individual responses to debt...

We explore the effects of round number preferences in credit card payments. Payments at round numbers are very common: 70% of manual non-full credit card payments are at round numbers. Using minimum payment amounts as a natural experiment for the lower bound on payments, we show stickiness in...

Using data from multiple card issuers, we show that the most common penalty fee type incurred by credit card holders – late payment fees – declines sharply over the first few months of card life. This phenomenon is wholly due to some consumers adopting automatic payments after a late payment...