Sending Out an SMS: Automatic Enrollment Experiments for Overdraft Alerts

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Grubb, Michael D.; Kelly, Darragh; Nieboer, Jeroen; Osborne, Matthew; Shaw, Jonathan
• 署名单位: Boston College; Alphabet Inc.; Google Incorporated; University of Toronto; University of Toronto; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1082
• DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13404
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 467-514
• 关键词: REMINDERS; deadlines; procrastination; consumers

摘要

At-scale field experiments at major U.K. banks show that automatic enrollment into just-in-time text alerts reduces unarranged overdraft and unpaid item charges 17% to 19% and arranged overdraft charges 4% to 8%, implying annual market-wide savings of 170 pound million to 240 pound million. Incremental benefits from early-warning alerts are statistically insignificant, although economically significant effects are not ruled out. Prior to the experiments, over half of overdrafts could have been avoided by using lower-cost liquidity available in savings and credit card accounts. Alerts help consumers achieve less than half of these potential savings.