Patterns of Credit Card Use Among Low and Moderate Income Households

Ensuring that the poorer segments of the population have access to financial products and services has taken on increased significance as policymakers have come to understand the broad social ramifications of inclusive financial regimes. Access not only promotes savings but also enables the poor to manage cash flows and to meet basic needs such as health care, food, and housing. In the United States, the last few decades have seen remarkable progress on that front, as lowand moderate-income (“LMI”) households increasingly use both mainstream products like deposit accounts and “fringe” products like payday lending, check-cashing services, and pawnshops. At the same time, because many of those products exploit cognitive and financial constraints, policymakers now increasingly move beyond concerns about access to emphasize the need for safety in the design and marketing of financial products.