Pi-Consulting

Credit card companies, faced with the problem of too many people maxing out their cards, are falling prey to an unexpected variant of the numbers game. Monthly statements tell debtors what the minimum payment required of them will be this month. A new study by Neil Stewart, a psychologist at Britain’s Warwick University, has discovered that the mere fact of mentioning the “minimum number” diminishes the likelihood of card-holders paying more than that amount. People who are disposed to pay more change their minds, and by a significant margin only cough up the minimum requirement on their statement. On that basis, what gets maxed is likely to stay maxed. Source: The Economist