credit card - Publications - Faculty & Research

February 2025
Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia

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July 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Salary Finance

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In April 2019, Asesh Sarkar, co-founder and chief executive of Salary Finance Limited, a London-based FinTech, faced tough choices. Sarkar had founded Salary Finance with Dan Cobley and Daniel Shakhani in 2015. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

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Research Summary

Overview

Grant uses a combination of laboratory and field experiments to harness consumers' cognitive and affective resources to increase their well-being. Consumers make countless daily decisions in the pursuit of happiness -- whether and how to spend or save their money, what... View Details

Keywords: Well-being; Judgment And Decision Making; Health; Prosocial Behavior

29 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 29, 2019

grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage the bank’s already successful mobile banking app? Second, if a separate app was developed,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

04 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 4

which they arise. We discuss applications to payment card systems, travel reservation systems, rebate services, and various other intermediaries. Download working paper: http://www.benedelman.org/publications/pricecoherence-2014-10-21.pdf... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Buy Now, Pay Later: How Retail's Hot Feature Hurts Low-Income Shoppers

with Gen Z shoppers in their teens and 20s. The payment method made up $97 billion—or 2.1 percent—of total US e-commerce sales in 2020, a figure that is expected to double by 2024. BNPL is so lucrative, merchants are paying fintech companies roughly twice the amount... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Financial Services; Technology

22 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Student Loan Debt Leads to Better Jobs, Stronger Consumers

largest consumer debt in the US, trailing only mortgage loans—and surpassing car loans, credit card debt, and home equity lines of credit. Source: New York Fed Consumer Credit... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

17 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

‘Not a Bunch of Weirdos’: Why Mainstream Investors Buy Crypto

School of Management; and Tetyana Balyuk of the Emory University Goizeta Business School. The economists analyzed the bank account and credit card transactions of more than 59 million US consumers between... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

07 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 7, 2009

a self-reported measure. Overall, we find that debt literacy is low: only about one-third of the population seems to comprehend interest compounding or the workings of credit cards. Even after controlling for demographics, we find a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers

overall financial health improved, as well. Two years after high-to-low reordering bans, borrowers’ balances in good standing increased by about $431, credit card limits increased by $190, and their FICO... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

18 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

What Is an "Essential" Purchase for a Low-Income Family?

purchases, but there are fewer items that fit within the permissible categorization of 'necessary' in the first place," they write. To illustrate, take the case of the gift card experiment. Participants were shown two gift View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

from one of the three major credit reporting agencies over several years. This offered an in-depth look at borrowers that either used a fintech company or a bank to obtain a personal loan. (A personal loan is an unsecured loan that is... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

If you’ve recently ordered food or coffee on an app, you’re probably familiar with the prompt to tip your barista, delivery driver, or sandwich maker. Or even more commonly, when ordering at a casual dining counter, you’ve been asked to leave a tip on the screen used... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

04 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Navigating Consumer Data Privacy in an AI World

such as whether credit card information or social security numbers were at risk of being leaked. However, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, society has become more aware that the misuse of personal... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

Administration. “Those who choose the offering will engage with it more.” Equally important, the researchers found that in this context, identifying negatives prominently had an “insignificant effect” on customer acquisition rates. Trade-off transparency at a View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

06 Nov 2008
Op-Ed

Selling Out The American Dream

zero. Consumer confidence has plummeted with the value of 401(k) plans and retirement nest eggs. Retail sales fell 1.2 percent in September, double the expected decline. Car sales are at a fifteen-year low. And credit View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

exceeding that percentage of actual revenue. Other expenses—insurance, credit card processing, marketing, utilities, repairs—mount up. Assuming adequate working capital upon opening, a restaurant’s cash from... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

20 Dec 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

How to Design a Better Customer Experience

the front desk couldn’t find our reservation. The night manager immediately took us to our rooms so we could rest and even gave us an upgrade for the inconvenience. (We waited less than five minutes.) He didn’t ask for a credit View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Entertainment & Recreation

15 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem

something that already works [e.g. credit and debit cards], something that doesn't complain when it gets wet in the rain, something that doesn't complain when I launder my pants?" Especially, he adds, when those View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Technology; Retail

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

discussion around one’s relationship with money. Most adults have very different perspectives on money and typically this is rooted in deep family or personal experiences, sometimes starting in early childhood. A parent losing a job, having to work at a young age to... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

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