Cool to have our credit card research covered in the @nytimes!!! 💳🗞️ @ChicagoBooth with @pauldadams @stefanhunt @JesseBLeary #HouseholdFinance #EconTwitter

Here's a short thread on the topic of reducing credit card debt. 1/6

nytimes.com/2024/01/12/bus… My take:

Reducing credit card debt is like losing weight. There doesn’t seem to be a simple fix. It is hard. To reduce debt consumers need persistently both healthier consumption (spend less on credit) and more exercise (repay more). Both are painful now. 2/6

♥️A valentine’s gift ♥️: New short working paper `Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)...On Your Credit Card’ with Chris Firth & @johngathergood @ChicagoBooth @WarwickBSchool @UoNEconomics

Paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2201.01758…

Thread ⬇️ 1/9 #saywhatyoufound #householdfinance #BNPL #econtwitter BNPL is a FinTech credit option to defer payments into 1+ (often <5) 0% interest instalments.

Next time you shop online you’ll likely see BNPL firms (e.g. Afterpay/Clearpay, Affirm, Klarna) as a payment options 👀

🇬🇧 BNPL is larger than payday lending market at its peak! 2/9

👋New work with @johngathergood evaluating recent UK local lockdowns using new real-time spending data

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2010.04129

@EconObservatory blog: coronavirusandtheeconomy.com/question/how-c…

Thread ⬇️ 1/11
#householdfinance #coronavirusindicators #econtwitter We use @fable_data - a new source of European real-time, transaction-level consumption data. We find a 0.91 correlation with comprehensive (aggregated) bank of england credit card data. Its real-time, disaggregated format facilitates studying regional consumption... 2/11

Fantastic, careful @bankofengland analysis in monetary policy + financial stability reports. I know how much hard graft goes into these in normal times. Well done all!👏👏👏

Well worth a read (links at end) - much not UK specific... 1/n
#HouseholdFinance #CoronaVirusIndicators Reports acknowledge huge uncertainty in macro forecasts. Main scenario sees massive drop but relatively sharp recovery - let's hope they are right... 2/n

This week's @Equifax @EquifaxInsights weekly 🇺🇸household debt update is now out. 📉🙏

🚨THEY'VE ADDED DATA ON ORIGINATIONS INCLUDING SPLITS BY CREDIT RISK AND WE ARE SEEING IMPORTANT STUFF!🚨

Here's my take.

1/8

#HouseholdFinance #CoronaVirusIndicators OUTSTANDING DEBT (to April 20) remains unchanged

Tl; dr my summary from last week still seems the story across products on outstanding stock.

https://twitter.com/gk_ben/status/1254273475381952514

2/8

What's the early effects of Covid-19 on US household debt (to Monday 13 April)? Thanks to great work @Equifax @EquifaxInsights we're starting to know. Here's my summary... 1/8
#HouseholdFinance #CoronaVirusIndicators The boom in household debt since 2013 is done. Outstanding debt flattened off in aggregate and across mortgages + autos.

This is the stock so a slow-moving variable. Seeing flow of new accounts would be a more leading indicator. 2/8

Hey @pauldadams let's thread this! A summary of four working papers on credit cards in N tweets. Especially for those interested in #HouseholdFinance #BehavioralEconomics #debt #RCTs 1/n

https://twitter.com/pauldadams/status/1022455682640105472

1 in 4 UK credit card payments are at or close to the minimum payment (US similar). Minimum payment information on credit cards appears to act as an anchor making consumers more likely to pay at or close to the minimum. How can we help consumers to pay more? 2/n