IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v53y2019i4p1693-1724.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Automated Reminders on Credit Outcomes: Results from an Experimental Pilot Program

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen P. Roll
  • Stephanie Moulton

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of an automated reminder program designed to help credit counseling consumers manage their payment obligations and financial goals. Credit counseling consumers were randomly assigned to receive reminders linked to their financial goals and payment obligations for one year after an initial credit counseling session. We find that consumers offered reminders were 21% less likely than the control to experience severe (60+ day) payment delinquencies and were 12% less likely to experience a 30+ day delinquency. At the same time, these consumers saw a 10.5 point increase in credit scores relative to the control group. There were no significant impacts on total credit card balances or installment debt levels. This analysis provides promising evidence that automated reminders can provide an important complement to traditional credit counseling when it comes to improving consumers' credit profiles and does so at a fairly low cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen P. Roll & Stephanie Moulton, 2019. "The Impact of Automated Reminders on Credit Outcomes: Results from an Experimental Pilot Program," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 1693-1724, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:53:y:2019:i:4:p:1693-1724
    DOI: 10.1111/joca.12252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12252
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joca.12252?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Saulı̄tis, Andris, 2023. "Nudging debtors with non-performing loans: Evidence from three field experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    2. Jabbari, Jason & Roll, Stephen & Bufe, Sam & McKay, Jessica, 2022. "“Take my word for it”: Group Texts and Testimonials Enhance State and Federal Student Aid Applications," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

    More about this item

    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:bla:jconsa:v:53:y:2019:i:4:p:1693-1724. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    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.