Using a large panel of credit card accounts, we examine the dynamics of credit card borrowing and repayment in the United States and what these imply for the expected costs of credit card debt to consumers. Our analysis reveals that: (1) credit cards are predominantly used to borrow, (2) card...

We introduce a model of a rational credit card user's rather complex usage choices and develop an empirical framework to test its predictions. Employing a large national database of U.S. card accounts, we estimate how prices impact card usage and find that price effects are mostly well explained...

I quantify the impact of Federal Funds Rate (FFR) movements on consumers' welfare via the floating, or variable, rate on their credit cards. I first newly document that 96% of card rates adjust to the FFR within 3 months of a change in the latter. Exploiting these rate changes, I construct a...

The U.S. credit card market is highly concentrated and highly profitable, two facts which have drawn scrutiny of its competitive practices. I study competition in this market by analyzing how lenders target and acquire new customers using direct-mail, their principal acquisition channel. I find...

This paper establishes how the classical facts characterizing a failure of competition in credit card lending during the 1980s are largely reversed in the decades following. Between 1990 and 2008 lenders' mark-ups decreased by 35 percent, profits shrank by 32 percent relative the average in...