Cash & Stash Evaluation

Last registered on May 15, 2017

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Cash & Stash Evaluation
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002207
Initial registration date
May 13, 2017

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
May 15, 2017, 11:19 AM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Yale University, Innovations for Poverty Action

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2014-12-01
End date
2017-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Consumers face countless opportunities to borrow and spend on impulse. We work with a leading check casher in New York City to develop and test a new product that facilitates impulse saving. The product links check cashing transactions to a basic savings account by prompting customers to make a deposit every time they cash a check. Using a field experiment, we estimate the effects of receiving prompts relative to the account without the prompts on savings behavior.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Karlan, Dean and Jonathan Zinman. 2017. "Cash & Stash Evaluation ." AEA RCT Registry. May 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2207-1.0
Former Citation
Karlan, Dean and Jonathan Zinman. 2017. "Cash & Stash Evaluation ." AEA RCT Registry. May 15. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2207/history/17633
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We work with a leading check casher in New York City to develop and test a new product that facilitates impulse saving: "Cash & Stash," a savings account that enables customers to make savings deposits and withdrawals from the check cashing window. The core feature of the product is a prompt to save at the moment the customer realizes a substantial inflow of liquidity. RiteCheck partners with a credit union, first BethEx and now USAlliance Financial, to offer the savings account.This evaluation assesses whether behaviorally-informed product features—well-timed reminders and incentives to save–can encourage check cashing customers to build savings balances.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2015-02-01
Intervention End Date
2016-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
savings accounts balances, deposits, and withdrawals, both while treatments going and after treatments stop. trying to get data on borrowing from an alternative credit bureau
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
RiteCheck worked with the research team to randomize 872 Cash & Stash accountholders into one of four arms (see Figure 1 and next sub-section for details on sample creation and characteristics). Account functionality is identical across the four arms, which vary only in prompts and incentives to save. The four arms are:
T0) Account only. No additional incentives to save; no prompts to save after account-opening. This arm is akin to a basic saving account where the account-issuer does not actively promote usage among existing accountholders.
T1) Prompt only. Each transaction performed by these accountholders triggered a teller pop-up window that reminded tellers to prompt the customer to save: “Would you like to make a deposit into your Cash & Stash account?”
T2) Prompt + Sweepstakes. Each transaction performed by these accountholders triggered a teller pop-up window that reminded tellers to prompt the customer to save and to promote a sweepstakes incentive: “Would you like to make a deposit into your Cash & Stash account? Each dollar in your weekly balance is a sweepstakes entry. The bigger your balance the more chances you have to win!” At the end of each week, clients earned 1 sweepstake entry per dollar in their Cash & Stash account. RiteCheck conducted drawings for small prizes ($50 cash prize), and grand prize drawings ($500 cash prize) in July 2015, January 2016, and July 2016.
T3) Prompt + Rewards points. Each transaction performed by these accountholders triggered a teller pop-up window that reminded tellers to prompt the customer to save and to promote a rewards program incentive: “Would you like to make a deposit into your Cash & Stash account? Each week you get triple points for every dollar of your balance. The more you have in your account the more points you earn!” At the end of each week, clients earned 3 points per dollar in their Cash & Stash account, up to a limit of 15,000 points per week. 7,000 points is worth roughly $1.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization occurred at the individual account level, in one of two ways:
Batch randomization: Customers who opened Cash & Stash accounts during the initial pilot period (April 2013 through December 2014) and post-promotion period (May 2015 through May 2016) were randomized by IPA staff.
In-branch, on-the-spot randomization: During the promotional period (February 2015 through April 2015), clients that visited RiteCheck branches during peak hours (10:00am to 5:00pm) were approached by hired marketers with the offer to open a Cash & Stash savings account. Clients who agreed to open the account and submit their contact information to the marketer were randomized into one of the four treatment groups. Randomization took place using tablets equipped with a mobile data collection toolkit (SurveyCTO Collect), which used a built-in random number generator.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
872 check cashing clients
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Nothing 245, Verbal 228, Sweepstakes 185, Points 214
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Innovations for Poverty Action
IRB Approval Date
2014-12-05
IRB Approval Number
2232

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