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Who Pays For Your Rewards? Redistribution in the Credit Card Market

Author

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  • Agarwal, Sumit
  • Presbitero, Andrea
  • Silva, Andre F.
  • Wix, Carlo
Abstract
We study credit card rewards as an ideal laboratory to quantify redistribution between consumers in retail financial markets. Comparing cards with and without rewards, we find that, regardless of income, sophisticated individuals profit from reward credit cards at the expense of naive consumers. To probe the underlying mechanisms, we exploit bank-initiated account limit increases at the card level and show that reward cards induce more spending, leaving naive consumers with higher unpaid balances. Naive consumers also follow a sub-optimal balance-matching heuristic when repaying their credit cards, incurring higher costs. Banks incentivize the use of reward cards by offering lower interest rates than on comparable cards without rewards. We estimate an aggregate annual redistribution of $15 billion from less to more educated, poorer to richer, and high to low minority areas, widening existing disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Agarwal, Sumit & Presbitero, Andrea & Silva, Andre F. & Wix, Carlo, 2022. "Who Pays For Your Rewards? Redistribution in the Credit Card Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 17733, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17733
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy

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