This paper investigates the effects of credit scores on consumer payment behavior, especially on debit and credit card use. Anecdotally, a negative relationship between debit card use and credit score has been reported; however, it is not clear whether that relationship is related to other...

Barclaycard U.S. is one of a growing number of banks offering cardholders free access to their FICO® Credit Scores with credit card products. On November 19, 2014, Paul Wilmore of Barclaycard U.S. presented Barclays' rationale for offering this feature and provided his perspective on its...

We consider debit and credit card networks. Our contribution is to introduce the role of consumer credit into these payment networks, and to assess the way this affects competition and equilibrium fees. We analyze a situation in which overdrafts are associated with current accounts and debit...

To help consumers make informed decisions, regulators often impose disclosure requirements on financial institutions. However, disclosures may not be informative for consumers if they contain difficult-to-evaluate attributes, such as annual percentage rates (APRs). To improve a consumer's...

We estimate a two-stage Heckman selection model of credit card adoption and use with a unique dataset that combines administrative data from the Equifax credit bureau and self-reported data from the Survey of Consumer Payment Choice, a representative survey of US consumers. Even though the...

This paper utilizes a unique new dataset of credit card accounts to analyze how people respond to changes in credit supply. The data consist of a panel of thousands of individual credit card accounts from several different card issuers, with associated credit bureau data. We estimate both...

Households' choice of consumption and saving is a central topic of economics. While it has been viewed with favour by a large section of the economic profession, the surge in the household indebtedness to the historical heights has become a significant concern for developed economies. Although...

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve has recently promulgated an “ability to pay” rule under the CARD Act that prevents many stay-at-home mothers and homemakers from opening sole-account credit cards. This rule requires credit card issuers to consider only a person's independent...

In the United States, many consumers are increasingly accumulating debt, much of which is harmful and expensive. Prior research has devoted a great deal of attention to understanding why consumers generally get into debt and the strategies they can use to repay existing debts. While this work...