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Was this because of using cash or simply paying more attention to spending? I’d love to see a well done research paper to get a sense of the expected value of

by ellisv 7y ago

Was this because of using cash or simply paying more attention to spending? I’d love to see a well done research paper to get a sense of the expected value of cash vs credit.

lawn 7y ago
Not the commenter but I had the same experience changing from debit card to credit card. Even though I always paid off everything at the end of the month, I'm now buying more things simply because it's so easy. Before I only had smaller amounts on my debit card, so if I wanted to buy stuff online I had to first move money from another account. This extra step made me more conscious of my spending and I would imagine starting to use cash would have a similar effect.
orf 7y ago
It's pretty obvious and well known that if you disassociate the cost of something from the actual monetary value, people find it harder to conflate the two. This is the reason that you didn't buy a $20 XBox game, you brought a game with 1,700 Microsoft points. You don't buy this skin for a game for $14, that's way too expensive! Who would pay that! However when it's on sale for 3,200 Riot points? That's a great deal! If you wanted to strike a death blow to the micropayments industry you'd just need to force them to put the actual monetary price against each loot box/gem bundle/whatever rather than obscuring it with a made up currency that nobody can evaluate cost against.
Spooky23 7y ago
Credit card gets settled monthly. I may see something and say, “Cool, I’ll grab that” and swipe away. With cash I check my wallet, and think “that’s $50, I have $300, and need to go shopping and get gas later”. Just the act of reconciling what I have on hand defers many purchases. And deferrals stop many from happening! That said, I’m not a caveman and have a credit card. I just don’t use it without planning or having an emergency/unplanned event.

by ellisv 7y ago

Was this because of using cash or simply paying more attention to spending? I’d love to see a well done research paper to get a sense of the expected value of cash vs credit.

lawn 7y ago

Not the commenter but I had the same experience changing from debit card to credit card. Even though I always paid off everything at the end of the month, I'm now buying more things simply because it's so easy. Before I only had smaller amounts on my debit card, so if I wanted to buy stuff online I had to first move money from another account. This extra step made me more conscious of my spending and I would imagine starting to use cash would have a similar effect.

orf 7y ago

It's pretty obvious and well known that if you disassociate the cost of something from the actual monetary value, people find it harder to conflate the two. This is the reason that you didn't buy a $20 XBox game, you brought a game with 1,700 Microsoft points. You don't buy this skin for a game for $14, that's way too expensive! Who would pay that! However when it's on sale for 3,200 Riot points? That's a great deal! If you wanted to strike a death blow to the micropayments industry you'd just need to force them to put the actual monetary price against each loot box/gem bundle/whatever rather than obscuring it with a made up currency that nobody can evaluate cost against.

Spooky23 7y ago

Credit card gets settled monthly. I may see something and say, “Cool, I’ll grab that” and swipe away. With cash I check my wallet, and think “that’s $50, I have $300, and need to go shopping and get gas later”. Just the act of reconciling what I have on hand defers many purchases. And deferrals stop many from happening! That said, I’m not a caveman and have a credit card. I just don’t use it without planning or having an emergency/unplanned event.