IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wvu/wpaper/20-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revolving versus Convenience Use of Credit Cards: Evidence from U.S. Credit Bureau Data

Author

Listed:
  • Scott L. Fulford

    (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)

  • Scott Schuh

    (West Virginia University)

Abstract

Credit card payments and revolving debt are important for consumer theory but a key data source—credit bureau records—does not distinguish between current charges and revolving debt from the previous month. We develop a theory-based econometric methodology informed by survey evidence to estimate the likelihood a consumer is revolving each quarter. We validate our approach using a new survey linked to credit bureau data. For likely revolvers: (1) 100 percent of an increase in credit becomes an increase in debt eventually; (2) credit limit changes are half as salient as debt changes; and (3) revolving status is extremely persistent.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2020. "Revolving versus Convenience Use of Credit Cards: Evidence from U.S. Credit Bureau Data," Working Papers 20-12, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    • Handle: RePEc:wvu:wpaper:20-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=econ_working-papers
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hall, Robert E, 1978. "Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(6), pages 971-987, December.
    2. Sumit Agarwal & Paige Marta Skiba & Jeremy Tobacman, 2009. "Payday Loans and Credit Cards: New Liquidity and Credit Scoring Puzzles?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 412-417, May.
    3. Deaton, Angus, 1991. "Saving and Liquidity Constraints," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(5), pages 1221-1248, September.
    4. Fulford, Scott L., 2015. "The surprisingly low importance of income uncertainty for precaution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 151-171.
    5. David B. Gross & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2002. "Do Liquidity Constraints and Interest Rates Matter for Consumer Behavior? Evidence from Credit Card Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 149-185.
    6. Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2017. "Credit card utilization and consumption over the life cycle and business cycle," Working Papers 17-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. Scott R. Baker, 2018. "Debt and the Response to Household Income Shocks: Validation and Application of Linked Financial Account Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(4), pages 1504-1557.
    8. Arna Olafsson & Michaela Pagel, 2018. "The Liquid Hand-to-Mouth: Evidence from Personal Finance Management Software," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(11), pages 4398-4446.
    9. Deniz Aydin, 2015. "The marginal propensity to consume out of liquidity: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," 2015 Meeting Papers 270, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Agarwal, Sumit & Chomsisengphet, Souphala & Liu, Chunlin & Song, Changcheng & Souleles, Nicholas S., 2018. "Benefits of relationship banking: Evidence from consumer credit markets," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 16-32.
    11. Carol C. Bertaut & Michael Haliassos & Michael Reiter, 2009. "Credit Card Debt Puzzles and Debt Revolvers for Self Control," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 13(4), pages 657-692.
    12. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
    13. Jonathan Zinman, 2009. "Where Is The Missing Credit Card Debt? Clues And Implications," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(2), pages 249-265, June.
    14. Tullio Jappelli & Mario Padula & Luigi Pistaferri, 2008. "A Direct Test of The Buffer-Stock Model of Saving," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(6), pages 1186-1210, December.
    15. Tamas Briglevics & Scott Schuh, 2013. "U.S. consumer demand for cash in the era of low interest rates and electronic payments," Working Papers 13-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    16. Ching, Andrew T. & Hayashi, Fumiko, 2010. "Payment card rewards programs and consumer payment choice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1773-1787, August.
    17. Andrew K.G. Tan & Steven T. Yen & Yiing Jia Loke, 2011. "Credit Card Holders, Convenience Users and Revolvers: A Tobit Model with Binary Selection and Ordinal Treatment," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 225-255, November.
    18. Johnson Kathleen W., 2007. "The Transactions Demand for Credit Cards," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-33, March.
    19. Andrew K.G. Tan & Steven T. Yen & Yiing Jia Loke, 2011. "Credit card holders, convenience users and revolvers: A tobit model with binary selection and ordinal treatment," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 14, pages 225-255, November.
    20. Christopher D. Carroll, 2001. "A Theory of the Consumption Function, with and without Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 23-45, Summer.
    21. Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo & Jialan Wang, 2020. "The Marginal Propensity to Consume over the Business Cycle," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 351-384, April.
    22. Carroll, Christopher D. & Holm, Martin B. & Kimball, Miles S., 2021. "Liquidity constraints and precautionary saving," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    23. Fulford, Scott L., 2015. "How important is variability in consumer credit limits?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 42-63.
    24. Joanna Stavins, 2020. "Credit Card Debt and Consumer Payment Choice: What Can We Learn from Credit Bureau Data?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 59-90, August.
    25. Scott L. Fulford & Joanna Stavins, 2019. "Does getting a mortgage affect credit card use?," Working Papers 19-8, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    26. Akhand, Hafiz & Milbourne, Ross, 1986. "Credit cards and aggregate money demand," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 471-478.
    27. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    28. Scott Schuh & Oz Shy & Joanna Stavins, 2010. "Who gains and who loses from credit card payments?: theory and calibrations," Public Policy Discussion Paper 10-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    29. Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2015. "Consumer revolving credit and debt over the life cycle and business cycle," Working Papers 15-17, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    30. Deniz Aydin, 2015. "The Marginal Propensity to Consume out of Liquidity," Discussion Papers 15-010, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dodini, Samuel & Larrimore, Jeff & Tranfaglia, Anna, 2024. "Financial repercussions of SNAP work requirements," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2023. "Revolving versus Convenience Use of Credit Cards: Evidence from U.S. Credit Bureau Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(7), pages 1667-1701, October.
    2. Scott Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2020. "Credit Cards, Credit Utilization, and Consumption," Working Papers 19-07, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    3. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    4. Fulford, Scott L., 2015. "The surprisingly low importance of income uncertainty for precaution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 151-171.
    5. Fulford, Scott L., 2015. "How important is variability in consumer credit limits?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 42-63.
    6. Florian Exler & Michéle Tertilt, 2020. "Consumer Debt and default: A Macro Perspective," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_153v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    7. Alfonso Palacio Vera, 2008. "The "New consensus"and the Post-Keynesian approach to the analysis of liquidity traps," Documentos de trabajo de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales 08-03, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales.
    8. Orazio P. Attanasio & Guglielmo Weber, 2010. "Consumption and Saving: Models of Intertemporal Allocation and Their Implications for Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 693-751, September.
    9. Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2017. "Credit card utilization and consumption over the life cycle and business cycle," Working Papers 17-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    10. Jie Li & Quanyun Song & Yu Wu & Bihong Huang, 2021. "The effects of online consumer credit on household consumption level and structure: Evidence from China," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 1614-1632, December.
    11. Tertilt, Michèle & Exler, Florian, 2020. "Consumer Debt and Default: A Macroeconomic Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 14425, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Sattinger, Michael, 2011. "The Markov consumption problem," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4-5), pages 409-416.
    13. Muellbauer, John & Geiger, Felix & Rupprecht, Manuel, 2016. "The housing market, household portfolios and the German consumer," Working Paper Series 1904, European Central Bank.
    14. Tamás Briglevics & Scott Schuh, 2020. "This Is What's in Your Wallet...and Here's How You Use It," Working Papers 20-04, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    15. Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2015. "Consumer revolving credit and debt over the life cycle and business cycle," Working Papers 15-17, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    16. Flórez, Luz A., 2017. "Informal sector under saving: A positive analysis of labour market policies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 13-26.
    17. Olafsson, Arna & Gathergood, John, 2020. "The Co-holding Puzzle: New Evidence from Transaction-Level Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14799, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Carroll, Christopher D., 2009. "Precautionary saving and the marginal propensity to consume out of permanent income," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 780-790, September.
    19. De Veirman Emmanuel & Dunstan Ashley, 2011. "Time-Varying Returns, Intertemporal Substitution and Cyclical Variation in Consumption," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-41, July.
    20. Stephen Brown & Chris Veld & Yulia Veld‐Merkoulova, 2020. "Credit Cards: Transactional Convenience or Debt‐Trap?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 295-322, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit cards; revolving; convenience use; credit bureau;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wvu:wpaper:20-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Feng Yao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewvuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.