An Experimental Study on Credit Card Repayment

Last registered on January 13, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
An Experimental Study on Credit Card Repayment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015161
Initial registration date
January 13, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 13, 2025, 2:12 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Technology Sydney

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-01-15
End date
2025-02-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This experiment is to investigate how informational prompts and repayment options affect individuals' credit card repayment decisions. We will use 3*2 design to investigate how different payment screen design affects indibiduals' repayment. We ask individuals to use a slider to choose a repayment aomount when they don't want to pay the credit card debt in full or the minimum repayment amount. We vary the initial positions of the slider across the different groups. Moreover, we randomly provide an information reminder to individuals in different groups. This design allows us to inverstigate whether individuals repay more when the slider is located on the full balance amount and the information reminder is provided.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Tao, Simin. 2025. "An Experimental Study on Credit Card Repayment." AEA RCT Registry. January 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15161-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
1. Information Reminder
2. Position of slider
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2025-01-16
Intervention End Date
2025-01-17

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Repayment Amount
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Experiment Design:
1. Participant Selection:
- Screening: The age of participants should be 18-45.
- Select 600 Australian participants for multiple-stage tasks, dividing them as 6 groups.
2. Random Assignment:
- Randomly assign participants to 6 groups, where the payoff for each participant is contingent on their performance in each stage.
3. Section 1
The experiment employs a 3 × 2 experiment design with the following two independent variables:
1. Informational Prompts (2 levels):
o No prompt (Control group)
o With the Prompt: "The more you repay now, the faster you'll clear your debt."
2. Repayment Slider Options (3 levels):
o Minimum repayment (0): Slider starts at the minimum required payment amount.
o Midpoint repayment (Middle): Slider starts at a pre-set middle value.
o Maximum repayment (Maximum): Slider starts at the maximum balance amount.
Each participant is exposed to one combination of prompt and slider setting, creating six conditions in total.

4. Section 2
4.1 Collect demographic information (age/gender/education)
4.2 Collect time preference/risk preferene)

Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomisation by Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Individual Level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
600
Sample size: planned number of observations
600
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 per group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Technology Sydney
IRB Approval Date
2024-12-18
IRB Approval Number
ETH23-8040

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials