Search Results
Report
Personality Traits and Financial Outcomes
Surveys indicate that about 4.5 percent of US households do not have a bank account and about one-quarter do not own any credit cards. Among credit cardholders, revolving credit card debt (carrying unpaid balances) is common. Using data from the 2021 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice and the University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study, this paper looks at whether self-reported personality traits have a significant effect on these financial outcomes when the analysis considers consumers’ income, demographics, and financial literacy. Specifically, it studies ...
Report
2023 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
For 2023, the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment choice found the following: • US consumers made more payments in 2023. o Compared to October 2022, there were statistically significant increases in the number of all payments (to 45.6 on average per month), in the number of all types of card payments (29.5), and in payments via mobile app (13). o The share of purchases made remotely increased to 22 percent, up 4 percentage points from 2022 and more than double the share of remote purchases before the COVID-19 pandemic. • Mobile has won over three-quarters of US consumers. o 72 percent of ...
Discussion Paper
Banking the Unbanked: The Past and Future of the Free Checking Account
About one in twenty American households are unbanked (meaning they do not have a demand deposit or checking account) and many more are underbanked (meaning they do not have the range of bank-provided financial services they need). Unbanked and underbanked households are more likely to be lower-income households and households of color. Inadequate access to financial services pushes the unbanked to use high-cost alternatives for their transactional needs and can also hinder access to credit when households need it. That, in turn, can have adverse effects on the financial health, educational ...
Journal Article
Payment Card Adoption and Payment Choice
Using data from the 2021 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, this article investigates two questions: how do consumers without credit or debit cards make payments, and do consumers without these payment cards differ from other consumers?
Discussion Paper
Hold the Check: Overdrafts, Fee Caps, and Financial Inclusion
The 25 percent of low-income Americans without a checking account operate in a separate but unequal financial world. Instead of paying for things with cheap, convenient debit cards and checks, they get by with “fringe” payment providers like check cashers, money transfer, and other alternatives. Costly overdrafts rank high among reasons why households “bounce out” of the banking system and some observers have advocated capping overdraft fees to promote inclusion. Our recent paper finds unintended (if predictable) effects of overdraft fee caps. Studying a case where fee caps were ...
Report
2022 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
In October 2022, US consumers reported making 39 payments per month on average, unchanged from 2021 when adjusted for questionnaire changes. As a share of all payments by number, most payments were by credit card (31 percent) or debit card (29 percent). By value, 43 percent of payments value was made electronically from a bank account using one of two ACH methods and 35 percent were made using a card (debit, credit, or prepaid).
Working Paper
Who Remains Unbanked in the United States and Why?
This paper conducts a detailed exploration of the factors associated with unbanked status among U.S. households and how these relationships evolved between 2015 and 2019. Biennial FDIC household survey data on bank account ownership and household characteristics, combined with state-level variables, are examined with application of both fixed effects and multilevel modeling. The analysis finds that even as rising incomes drove a decline in the unbanked percentage of the population over this period, income remained the most significant differentiator, with strong associations with race and ...
Journal Article
Financial Services for Lower-Income Communities
Report
The 2014 survey of consumer payment choice: summary results
In 2014, the average number of U.S. consumer payments per consumer per month decreased to 66.1, in a statistically insignificant decline from 67.9 in 2013. The number of payments made by paper check continued to decline, falling by 0.7 to 5.0 checks per month, while the number of electronic payments (online banking bill payments, bank account number payments, and deductions from income) increased by 0.6 to 6.9 of these payments per month. The monthly shares of debit cards (31.1 percent), cash (25.6 percent), and credit cards (23.3 percent) continued to be largest; while the share of ...