Can robo-advice help with debt repayment?

Last registered on December 20, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Can robo-advice help with debt repayment?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006447
Initial registration date
September 17, 2020

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
September 18, 2020, 10:31 AM EDT

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

Last updated
December 20, 2021, 12:43 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Financial Conduct Authority

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Financial Conduct Authority
PI Affiliation
Financial Conduct Authority
PI Affiliation
Financial Conduct Authority
PI Affiliation
Boston College
PI Affiliation
Georgetown
PI Affiliation
Boston College

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-09-18
End date
2022-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We have concerns that consumers can find it difficult to make good decisions across a wide range of financial products. This is particularly true in the context of debt management, where where through poor repayment and refinancing decisions, debts can increase and few consumers seek out advice until they are in serious financial difficulty. To address this situation, it is important to understand better how consumers make decisions and the extent to which well-timed and appropriate advice can help.

In this work, we will focus on the debt repayment and explore the potential for automated robo-advice to assist consumers to make better decisions. A number of firms are starting to provide these services. At present the majority of debt advice is provided through a mix of charitable and for-profit organisations but debt charities do not have sufficient capacity to meet consumer demand and consumers may be unwilling or unable to pay for for-profit assistance. Robo-advice has a potential to address this and may provide additional benefits when consumers feel uncomfortable discussing their debt issues in person with a human advisor. However, very little is known about the effectiveness of this advice, whether people would be willing to trust or take up automated advice and what they would be willing to pay for it.

We propose an online trial to investigate consumer outcomes and attitudes to different types of robo-advice for debt management. In this experiment, participants will face a number of hypothetical scenarios where they have a certain amount of money to allocate to the repayment of multiple debts. The objective of the participant is to allocate the repayments in such a way as to minimise the interest and fees they would pay.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Burke, Chris et al. 2021. "Can robo-advice help with debt repayment?." AEA RCT Registry. December 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6447-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We propose an online trial to investigate consumer outcomes and attitudes to different types of robo-advice for debt management. In this experiment, participants will face a number of hypothetical scenarios where they have a certain amount of money to allocate to the repayment of multiple debts. In some of the scenarios they will be offered robo-advice, possibly with a training element. The objective of the participant is to allocate the repayments in such a way as to minimise the interest and fees they would pay.
Intervention Start Date
2020-09-18
Intervention End Date
2020-10-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary outcome measure is the amount of hypothetical interest and fees the individuals saves relative to the optimal and most suboptimal repayment strategies.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
A secondary outcome measure is the length of time spent on each task.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Randomisation will take place at the individual level. Participants will be randomly allocated to the control group or one of the treatment arms.
Experimental Design Details
Participants will be randomly allocated to one of 5 groups: 1) A control group where there is no intervention (e.g. the same as the pre-intervention period). 2) A robo-advised group where participants are offered the use of an automated assistant for free. 3) A robo-advised group where participants are offered the use of an automated assistant and have to submit a willingness to pay measure using the Becker-Degroot-Marshak auction method. 4) A robo-advised group where participants are offered the use of an automated assistant for free, but the robo-adviser explains how it made its decisions & 5) A robo-advised group where participants are offered the use of an automated assistant and have to submit a willingness to pay measure using the Becker-Degroot-Marshak auction method, where the robo-adviser explains how it made its decisions.
Randomization Method
Randomisation will be achieved using the randomizer built into the survey software we will use (Qualtrics).
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
4500 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
4500 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
900 individuals control, 900 individuals in each of four treatment arms (robo-advice with and without education and with and without willingness to pay)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Financial Conduct Authority Internal Ethics Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2020-05-06
IRB Approval Number
N/A

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