IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/2017-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New Evidence on an Old Unanswered Question : Why Some Borrowers Purchase Credit Insurance and Other Debt Protection and Some Do Not

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Credit related insurance and other debt protection are products sold in conjunction with credit that extinguish a consumer?s debt or suspends its periodic payments if events like death, disability, or involuntary unemployment occur. High penetration rates observed in the 1950s and 1960s raised concerns about coercion in the sale of credit insurance. This study presents evidence on credit insurance purchase and debt protection decisions from a new survey. The findings provide little evidence of widespread or systematic coercion in purchases. Instead, findings suggest that risk aversion and health or financial concerns motivate consumers to purchase credit insurance and debt protection, just as these concerns also motivate purchases of other types of insurance.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas A. Durkin & Gregory E. Elliehausen, 2017. "New Evidence on an Old Unanswered Question : Why Some Borrowers Purchase Credit Insurance and Other Debt Protection and Some Do Not," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-122, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-122
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2017.122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2017122pap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17016/FEDS.2017.122?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glenn B. Canner & Anthony W. Cyrnak, 1986. "Consumer experiences with credit insurance: some new evidence," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Sum, pages 5-20.
    2. Durkin, Thomas A. & Elliehausen, Gregory & Staten, Michael E. & Zywicki, Todd J., 2014. "Consumer Credit and the American Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195169928.
    3. Thomas A. Durkin, 2002. "Consumers and credit disclosures: credit cards and credit insurance," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 88(Apr), pages 201-213, April.
    4. Robert A. Eisenbeis & Paul Schweitzer, 1979. "Tie-ins between the granting of credit and sale of insurance by bank holding companies and other lenders," Staff Studies 101, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Onyumbe Enumbe Ben Lukongo & Thomas W. Miller, 2022. "The cost of rate caps: Evidence from Arkansas," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 881-909, December.
    2. Lukongo, Onyumbe Enumbe & Miller, Thomas, 2017. "Adverse Consequences of the Binding Constitutional Interest Rate Cap in the State of Arkansas," Working Papers 07446, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    3. Elliehausen, Gregory & Hannon, Simona M., 2018. "The Credit Card Act and consumer finance company lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 109-119.
    4. Arango, Luis E. & Cardona-Sosa, Lina & Pedraza-Jiménez, Nataly, 2021. "The use of credit cards among low- and middle-income individuals in Colombia and the channels of monetary policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 150-169.
    5. J. Brandon Bolen & Gregory Elliehausen & Thomas W. Miller, 2020. "Do Consumers Need More Protection From Small‐Dollar Lenders? Historical Evidence And A Roadmap For Future Research," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1577-1613, October.
    6. Carol C. Bertaut & Michael Haliassos, 2001. "Debt Revolvers for Self Control," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 0208, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    7. Zinman, Jonathan, 2009. "Debit or credit?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 358-366, February.
    8. Irina A. Telyukova, 2013. "Household Need for Liquidity and the Credit Card Debt Puzzle," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(3), pages 1148-1177.
    9. Arango, Luis E. & Cardona-Sosa, Lina, 2023. "Consumer credit in an emerging economy: Demand, supply, and liquidity restrictions," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    10. J. Michael Collins, 2014. "Protecting Mortgage Borrowers through Risk Awareness: Evidence from Variations in State Laws," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 124-146, March.
    11. Tuomas Takalo, 2019. "Regulation of short-term consumer credits," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(4), pages 348-354, December.
    12. Gregory E. Elliehausen & Simona Hannon, 2023. "FinTech and Banks: Strategic Partnerships That Circumvent State Usury Laws," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-056, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Anderson, Michael H. & Jackson, Raymond, 2021. "Option value and auto title loans," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    14. Miller, Thomas, 2019. "How Do Small-Dollar, Nonbank Loans Work?," Annals of Computational Economics, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, April.
    15. Glenn B. Canner & Anthony W. Cyrnak, 1986. "Consumer experiences with credit insurance: some new evidence," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Sum, pages 5-20.
    16. Gregory E. Elliehausen & Simona Hannon, 2017. "The Credit Card Act and Consumer Finance Company Lending," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-072, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    17. John K. Ashton & Robert S. Hudson, 2009. "Should the joint provision of credit insurance with unsecured lending be prohibited? An examination of the UK payment protection insurance market," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2009-08, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    18. Mary Eschelbach Hansen & Julie Routzahn, 2014. "Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Debt and Financial Position: The Impact of the Great Recession," Working Papers 2014-10, American University, Department of Economics.
    19. Gregory E. Elliehausen & Simona Hannon & Thomas W. Miller, Jr., 2021. "A New Look at the Effects of the Interest Rate Ceiling in Arkansas," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-045r1, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), revised 05 May 2023.
    20. Cifuentes, Rodrigo & Margaretic, Paula & Saavedra, Trinidad, 2020. "Measuring households' financial vulnerabilities from consumer debt: Evidence from Chile," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit insurance; Personal finance; Consumer protection; Insurance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.