CREDIT CARDS IN THE U.S. ECONOMY:

Their Impact on Costs, Prices, and Retail Sales

A Study by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
CREDIT CARDS IN THE U.S. ECONOMY:

Their Impact on Costs, Prices, and Retail Sales

A Study by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Submitted to the Committee of Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

of the United States Senate

and

the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs 

of the United States House of Representatives

Pursuant to Section 202 of the Cash Discount Act of 1981

July 27, 1983

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
CREDIT CARDS IN THE U.S. ECONOMY:

THEIR IMPACT ON COSTS, PRICES, AND RETAIL SALES

CONTENTS PAGE

1. Introduction and Summary 1

1.1. Scope of Study 1

1.2. Origin of Study 2

1.3. Summary 5

2. Economic Characteristics of Credit Card Plans 10

2.1. Gasoline Company Credit Cards 10

2.2. Bank Credit Cards 13

2.3. General Purpose Credit Cards 16

2.4. Retail Store Credit Cards 17

2.5. Other Credit Cards 18

3. Impact of Credit Cards on Consumer Spending 20

3.1. Patterns of Credit Card Usage 20

3.2. Impact of Credit Cards on Expenditures 22

Microeconomic evidence 23

Macroeconomic evidence 28

4. Effect of Credit Card Transactions on Costs of Retailers 32

4.1. The Incentive to Engage in Credit Card Transactions 32

4.2. Costs to Retailers of Credit Card Transactions 36

Empirical studies 38

1983 survey of retailers 47

5. Effect of Credit Cards on Prices of Goods and Services 59

5.1. Retailer Pricing Behavior: Microeconomic Perspective 59

Magnitude of price effect 60

Price determination and credit surcharges 61

Competition in retailing 63

5.2. Impact of Credit Cards Use on Price Movements

and Economic Activity 64

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
CONTENTS (cont.) PAGE

6. Separate Pricing of Credit Card Services and Retail Products 69

6.1. Cost Recovery Through Financing Revenues 69

6.2. Two-Tier Pricing Structure 74

6.3. Buyer and Seller Attitudes to Discounts 78

Survey of gasoline purchases 78

Survey of hypothetical reactions to discounts 82

Independent study of feasible discounts 86

Results of retailer poll on two-tier pricing 90

Bibliography

Appendix A Text of Cash Discount Act of 1981

Appendix B Federal Reserve Surveys on Credit Cards and 

Related Materials

Appendix C Hypothetical Example of Two-Tier Pricing of Gasoline

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
CREDIT CARDS IN THE U.S. ECONOMY:

THEIR IMPACT ON COSTS, PRICES, AND RETAIL SALES

1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

By at least the beginning of the 1970s the personal credit card 

had become a fixture in the nation's economy. Card use had spread rapidly 

after World War II, and accelerated with the development of the bank credit 

card in the late 1950s. Today almost 600 million credit card accounts exist 

in the United States, and seven out of ten households possess at least one 

credit card. Outstanding balances on credit card accounts total more than 

$75 billion.

Despite the widespread use of credit cards, opinion has been 

divided on their economic significance. In response to a Congressional 

request for a report on the economic impact of credit cards— deemed necessary 

to evaluate a law that encouraged the offering of price discounts for payment 

by cash— this study examines the impact of credit cards on the costs that 

merchants and creditors incur, on the pricing of goods sold by retailers, 

and on the volume of retail sales. The Congress asked for information on 

these issues to help ascertain whether and to what extent credit card users 

are subsidized by cash customers when both pay the same prices for goods and 

services.

1.1. Scope of Study

While some background is provided (in Chapter 2) on the history, 

characteristics, and use of different types of credit cards, the primary 

focus of the study is on the costs to retailers associated with credit card 

transactions, compared with the costs of cash and check transactions, and on 

the question of how credit cards affect the sales of retailers— topics that

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-2-

were of central concern in the discussions that led to the study request.

The study also seeks to provide the Congress with up-to-date information on 

the prevalence of discount-for-cash programs, and current attitudes of both 

retailers and consumers toward such programs. The study provides no recommendations regarding legislation to promote discounts for cash or surcharges 

for credit, in view of the Congressional request for an informational rather 

than an advisory study.

The report draws upon existing studies, where applicable, and also

presents findings of special surveys of households and retailers undertaken

expressly for this report. The Federal Reserve Board sponsored questions

about consumer response to discounts for cash on two regular household

surveys conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.

The Board also commissioned a survey of retail organizations about their

perceptions of relative costs of cash, check, and credit card transactions,

and on their practices and views concerning the offering of price discounts

to customers who pay cash.

1.2. Origin of Study

In 1974, the Congress amended the Consumer Credit Protection Act 

(more commonly referred to as the Truth in Lending Act) to encourage merchants 

to offer discounts to customers who pay for purchases with cash instead of 

credit cards. The amendments, contained in the Fair Credit Billing Act of 

1974, were based on a conviction that credit card transactions were more 

costly for merchants to handle than were cash transactions. Recognizing 

also that in the long run selling costs must be recovered in the prices that 

merchants charge, the Congress concluded that cash buyers were subsidizing 

credit buyers in the customary situation where both faced an identical retail

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-3-

price for a given item at a given store. The amendments sought to encourage 

discounts by (1) prohibiting card issuers from contractually forbidding 

merchants to offer cash discounts and (2) exempting cash discounts of up to 

five percent from the requirement of disclosure as finance charges under 

federal law.^ The Federal Reserve Board was to administer these provisions 

as part of its general responsibilities under the Truth in Lending Act.

In implementing the exemption of cash discounts from treatment as

finance charges under the Truth in Lending Act, the Board encountered the

question as to whether the Congress intended this special treatment to apply

to both discount and surcharge pricing systems. The Board requested guidance

from Congress on its legislative intent, and the Congress responded in 1976

by specifically defining the terras "discount" and "surcharge" as, respectively,

a reduction from and an addition to the "regular price." "Regular price" was

not defined, but the Congress clearly specified that a discount was not

equivalent to a surcharge, and prohibited the imposition of surcharges until

February 27, 1979. The particular mechanics of establishing a two-tier price

system had to involve discounts from the credit price for cash customers

rather than surcharges to the cash price for credit customers. In addition,

the 1976 amendments provided that discounts offered in accordance with the

act and regulation would not be considered credit charges under any state

usury or disclosure laws. The surcharge prohibition was extended in 1978

for an additional two years, until February 27, 1981, without change.

1. The Truth in Lending Act requires extenders of credit to provide borrowers 

with information on the cost of credit expressed on a standardized basis to 

facilitate comparison shopping among creditors. This act and Federal Reserve 

regulations specify what should and should not be treated as a finance charge 

in calculating the annual percentage rate to be disclosed. In general, in 

credit sale transactions any difference between the cash price and the credit 

price is to be treated as a finance charge. Under these circumstances, es~ 

specially in light of state laws setting maximum interest rates on consumer 

credit, merchants and card issuers were reluctant to price goods separately for 

sale by cash or by credit.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-4-

In 1981 Congress further amended the cash discount provisions in 

the Truth in Lending Act and once again extended the surcharge prohibition.

The principal amendments (1) eliminated the 5 percent limit on discounts that 

were exempt from treatment as a finance charge, thus authorizing unlimited 

discounts, and (2) removed language that directed the Board to issue regulations concerning the offering of discounts. The surcharge prohibition was 

extended until Februry 27, 1984, but only after considerable debate and the 

addition to the Act of a requirement that a study be prepared by the Federal 

Reserve Board concerning credit cards.1

While the primary focus of decision in early 1984 apparently was to 

be whether to continue or to remove the surcharge prohibition, the Congress 

requested a study that would go beyond a comparison of surcharges and discounts to a fundamental examination of the economic merits of two-tier 

pricing— by whatever mechanism achieved. It was remarked several times in 

the Senate floor discussion that relatively little evidence had been put 

forth to substantiate the belief that credit transactions were more costly to 

retailers than cash transactions; that, in fact, the main study of credit 

cards familiar to the senators— a 1968 Federal Reserve study— had found that 

credit cards exerted little upward pressure on costs of retailers.2

1. For the currently effective amendments to the Truth in Lending Act regarding 

discounts for cash, see: 15 U.S.C. §1666f (1982) (Pub. L. No. 90-321, Title

1, §167, as added Pub. L. No. 93-495, Title III, §306, October 28, 1974, and 

amended Pub. L. No. 94-222, §3(c)(l), February 27, 1976, 90 Stat. 197; Pub.

L. No. 97-25, Title I, §101, July 27, 1981, 95 Stat. 144.) The text of the 

Cash Discount Act of 1981 is provided in Appendix A.

2. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Bank Credit Cards and 

Check Credit Plans (Board of Governors, 1968), pp. 58-59. This conclusion was 

based in considerable part on the costs to retailers stemming from bank credit 

cards compared with the operating costs of store-card plans. If bank-card 

transactions primarily substitute for store-card transactions, a retailer 

would likely experience no change (or some decline) in costs. The 1968 study 

noted that "upward pressure on prices would arise from any massive shift of 

cash customers to the use of credit cards if there were no offsetting increase 

in the volume of transactions," but found little evidence that such a shift 

from cash was likely.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-5-

Thus, under Title II of the Cash Discount Act of 1981, the present

study was commissioned to provide the Congress with a report on what is

known about the impact of credit cards on the economy, particularly with

regard to the costs incurred by retailers and the pricing of goods and

services. The specific instruction from Congress was as follows:

"the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall 

prepare a study, on the basis of a review and analysis of 

such data and studies as it finds appropriate...on the 

effect of charge card transactions upon card issuers, 

merchants, and consumers, including to the extent possible—

(1) the effects of charge card transactions on 

retail sales;

(2) the effect of charge card usage on consumers 

and on merchants, including the effects on merchant 

cost; and

(3) the effect of charge card usage on the pricing 

of goods and services, with a comparison of the costs 

resulting from payment by (A) currency and coin,

(B) by personal check or similar instrument, (C) by 

in-house credit plans, and (D) by charge card."

1.3. Summary

As observed above, the fundamental thesis underlying the Cash 

Discount Act is that credit card transactions are more costly to retailers 

than cash or check transactions, and that the higher costs of credit cards 

are incorporated in the prices of goods and services paid by all customers, 

resulting in a subsidy of credit buyers by cash purchasers.

The most basic challenge to this view would be the assertion that, 

properly measured, transactions costs for credit cards do not differ from 

other means of payment, or that the magnitude of difference is negligible. 

Another counter-argument sometimes proposed to the subsidy thesis is that 

credit cards generate incremental sales for retailers, so that the additional 

profits thereby attributable to cards eliminate any need to recover the cost

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-6-

of credit cards in prices of goods and services. The following chapters 

discuss these issues, and also examine the current practices and attitudes 

of retailers toward offering discounts for cash.

Following a brief overview in Chapter 2 describing the types of 

credit cards available and the incidence of their use among households,

Chapter 3 examines the broad question of the impact of credit cards on sales 

of retailers. Many observers would argue that because consumers are enabled 

by credit cards to spend beyond the immediate limits of cash or checking 

account balances, they are more likely to make ill-considered purchases and, 

in general, to spend more and save less than they would in the absence of 

credit cards.

This idea was examined in two ways: first, through a survey of

households on "impulse" purchases transacted by credit cards; and second, by 

a review of available research on the link between credit cards and aggregate 

spending, on the grounds that any broad increase in spending induced by 

credit cards would be expected to boost aggregate consumption and to reduce 

the aggregate saving rate. However, neither the household survey nor the 

macroeconomic studies suggest that any strong, consistent relationship 

exists between credit cards and incremental sales among retailers as a group.1 

The survey found that many unplanned purchases were transacted by cash, and 

that many of those transacted through credit cards would likely have been 

undertaken even without access to a credit card. The limited amount of 

macroeconomic research available has failed to establish any measurable 

impact of credit cards on the aggregate saving rate.

1. Whether card-honoring retailers attract sales from other retailers who 

don't accept credit cards is treated as a minor issue, in view of the widespread acceptance of credit cards. Unless industry-wide sales are increased, 

gains and losses from credit card sales will net out among retailers, yielding 

no net additional revenues to offset the higher costs of credit cards.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-7-

Chapter 4 examines the costs associated with credit cards and other 

means of payment, and summarizes a number of relevant studies. It also 

reports on the results of a survey of retailers conducted this year concerning 

their perceptions of the relative costs of credit cards, cash, and checks.

The weight of the evidence from the survey and other studies is that total 

net costs to retailers associated with credit cards— including point-of-sale, 

security-related, and financial costs— are in fact higher than for other 

types of transactions, typically by about 2 to 3 percent of the transaction 

amount, a figure which roughly corresponds to the average factoring or 

servicing fee paid by merchants to issuers of third-party credit cards (or 

the net credit department deficits of retailers that issue their own credit 

cards). For most retailers, the costs of check transactions appear to be 

smaller than for credit cards, and either about the same or larger than for 

cash. Large retailers were more likely than small retailers to rate both 

checks and credit cards as more costly than cash.

In Chapter 5, the issue of whether the higher costs of credit cards 

are included in retail prices is discussed. From a microeconomic perspective, 

it is concluded that prices in the long run would reflect all such costs 

that were not recovered directly from credit card users, but that the size 

of the price effect would be small. In total, the need to cover creditrelated costs would likely boost the price of a given item by less than 1 percent. This minimal impact owes in part to the relatively small share of 

sales transacted by credit cards (around 15 percent through third-party cards 

in the areas of general merchandising under study).

From a macroeconomic perspective, credit cards could potentially 

affect economic activity by altering the aggregate propensity to consume 

and/or the transactions demand for money. Some impact on the equilibrium

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-8-

level of prices during a period of adjustment to the introduction of credit 

cards is held possible, but available evidence suggests that such an effect 

would be small and mostly irrelevant to the long-run processes of economic 

growth or inflation.

From Chapters 3 through 5, it can be concluded that credit card 

transactions cost most retailers more than cash (or check) transactions, and 

that this cost is not offset by higher retail sales volume, but is reflected 

in the level of prices. As a result it can be said that cash buyers, at least 

to some extent, subsidize credit card users by paying identical prices.

Chapter 6 examines two possible methods of minimizing the subsidy: 

(1) removal of government-imposed artificial barriers to coverage of credit 

card costs via finance charges and other user fees, and (2) establishment of 

a two-tier price structure involving discounts for cash or surcharges for 

credit.

Because of revisions in state usury laws and other statutes, card 

issuers have been in position to shift more of the cost of credit cards onto 

users recently. Adoption of two-tier pricing appears feasible for most 

retailers only if they simultaneously raise the base price from which discounts would be calculated, so that the "new" credit price is above— and 

the discounted cash price only somewhat below— the "old" single price.^

This conclusion is based on results from surveys of consumer reaction to 

actual two-tier pricing of gasoline and to hypothetical discounts for cash 

on durable goods and clothing, as well as implications from the findings on 

costs in Chapter 4.

A polling of retailers on their current practices and attitudes

toward discounts for cash, reported in Chapter 6, found that in the spring of

1. Two-tier pricing through surcharges for credit would ordinarily result in 

the same structure of credit and cash price as under a discount-for-cash 

approach.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-9-

1983 cash discounts were typically the exception rather than the rule for 

types of business likely to accept credit cards in addition to other means of 

payment. About 25 percent of gasoline stations and 6 percent of other retailers 

offered discounts, with around 40 percent of all retailers surveyed describing 

discounts for cash as "a good idea." About three out of every ten retailers 

thought that surcharges for credit constituted a better approach to two-tier 

pricing than discounts for cash; 70 percent thought surcharges an inferior 

approach.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-10-

2. ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF CREDIT CARD PLANS

Credit card plans in today's marketplace offer consumers a diverse 

menu of financial services. As background for the ensuing analysis, the 

present chapter compares the services currently offered by five major types 

of credit cards, the cost implications and pricing of these services, and 

trends in the holding and use of each type of card.^

2.1. Gasoline Company Credit Cards

Gasoline credit cards are "two-party" arrangements— credit cards 

that are issued by a vendor for customers to use in making credit purchases 

primarily or exclusively at the retail outlets of the issuing company.2 

Most gasoline company credit card programs provide credit for a one-month 

billing period with no provision for extending repayment over a longer period. 

Some gasoline companies offer optional extended periods to pay for purchases 

of more expensive items such as tires, batteries, or repairs.

As a result of the short repayment period, the gross expense to the 

gasoline companies of financing these receivables is lower, relative to the 

dollar volume of credit billings, than for credit card programs that offer 

extended repayment terms.^ However, the rather low average amount of credit 

purchases at gasoline stations implies that costs of processing credit card 

transactions tend to be fairly high per dollar of credit sales. Although 

processing costs are subject to some degree of control, particularly through

1. For further discussion of holding and use of credit cards, see Thomas A. 

Durkin and Gregory E. Elliehausen, 1977 Consumer Credit Survey (Board of 

Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1978).

2. Some gasoline company credit cards can be used to make purchases at stations operating under different brand names. Also, accommodations and meals 

at specified lodging establishments and restaurants can be charged on some 

gasoline company credit cards.

3. An offsetting factor is the relatively low amount of finance charge revenue 

generated by this type of credit card plan.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-11-

implementation of more efficient automated procedures that capture economies 

of scale, financial costs are mainly determined by market conditions and are 

largely beyond the control of credit card issuers.

Pricing of gasoline credit cards has consisted mainly of a finance 

charge applied to past-due balances. Thus, there has been no explicit charge 

for credit services used by credit customers that pay in full within the 

initial billing period. In the past few years, however, some gasoline 

companies have offered auto or travel clubs, for which membership fees are 

charged, consisting of credit card plans combined with travel-related services. 

Apart from this specialized development, no gasoline company has yet initiated 

a cardholder fee for its regular credit card program.

Since late 1981, some gasoline companies have begun programs that 

offer lower prices to customers who pay in cash rather than by credit card. 

Dealers who choose to participate in these programs generally charge customers 

about 3 to 5 cents per gallon less than the posted price if payment is made 

in cash; as a result, all credit card users help to defray at least part of 

the cost of providing credit card services. Several gasoline companies have 

also begun charging their dealers a handling fee— typically about 3 percent 

of amounts due from customers— for processing credit card billings.

The proportion of families that holds one or more gasoline company 

credit cards has remained stable, overall, in recent years at slightly above 

one-third (table 2.1). The dropoff in 1981 to 30 percent likely reflects 

short-term adjustments resulting from the 1979-80 gasoline shortage and 

associated price increases, as well as the temporary impact of the consumer 

credit restraint program that was in effect during the first half of 1980.

Use of gasoline credit cards has followed a generally similar 

pattern (table 2.2). About one-third of families has used gasoline company

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-12-

TABLE 2.1

CREDIT CARD HOLDING

(Families Holding Cards as Percent of All Families)

Type of Year

Credit Card 1977 1978 1981 1982

Any 63 64 66 70

Gasoline 34 34 30 35

Bank 38 40 45 51

General purpose^ 8 10 14 14

Retail store 53 50 57 63

Other2 6 5 7 n. a.

1. Travel and entertainment cards.

2. Includes airline cards, car-rental c. 

elsewhere.

n.a.— not available

Source: Data collected for the Federal 

Center, University of Michigan

ards, and others not classified 

Reserve Board by the Survey Research

TABLE 2.2

(Families

CREDIT CARD USE 

Using Cards as Percent of All Families)

Type of Year

Credit Card 1971 1977 1978 1981 1982

Any 503 60 62 62 n.a.

Gasoline 33 31 32 27 31

Bank 19 35 37 39 47

General purpose3 5 7 9 12 13

Retail store 45 50 48 51 57

Other2 n.a. 4 3 5 n. a .

1. Travel and entertainment cards.

2. Includes airline cards and car-rental cards.

3. Data for 1970. 

n.a.— not available

Source: 1970 Survey of Consumer Finances, 1971-72 Surveys of Consumers, and

data collected for the Federal Reserve Board by the Survey Research 

Center, University of Michigan.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-13-

credit cards since the early seventies. Some indication of reduced usage 

in 1981 likely reflects the aftereffects of gasoline shortages and government 

policies to restrain certain types of credit use.

2.2. Bank Credit Cards^

By contrast, bank credit cards are "third-party" arrangements in 

which the company that provides the financial service has no affiliation 

with the buyer or the seller of the goods and services purchased with the 

credit card. Bank credit cards offer highly flexible credit terms. Customers 

who can qualify for a fairly large credit limit— those who have a good credit 

history and adequate income— can incur relatively large indebtedness on such 

an account. Also, by choosing to pay less than the entire balance, account 

holders can stretch out repayments over an extended period of time. Thus, 

the bank credit card can be used to satisfy fairly large needs for immediate 

credit, and— if desired— to scale repayments to available income. Furthermore, bank credit cards are widely accepted for purchases of a large variety 

of goods and services, and can also be used to obtain cash at many financial 

institutions.

The gross financing cost incurred by a typical bank credit card

issuer per dollar of credit billings likely exceeds that of most gasoline

credit card programs, since a lower proportion— slightly less than threefifths— of bank card customers usually pays the entire balance when billed.

Processing costs are lower relative to the volume of bank credit card billings,

owing to the larger average dollar amount of bank credit card transactions. 1

1. Although the term "bank" credit card is commonly used, it obscures the 

growing diversity of institutions and organizations offering such services. 

"Bank" cards now are issued by finance companies (through commercial banks 

that may be subsidiaries), savings and loan associations, and credit unions. 

Some nonfinancial organizations such as the American Automobile Association 

have made arrangements with commercial banks to issue bank credit cards to 

members in the name of the organization.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-14-

Banks processing credit card receivables deduct a percentage of all 

credit card billings— called a "merchant discount" fee— for handling credit 

card slips submitted by the retailers. In turn, card-issuing banks charge 

other banks an "interchange" fee for clearing transactions billed to the 

accounts of customers of the card-issuing bank. Such fees help compensate 

card-issuing institutions for expenses of record keeping, billing customers, 

non-payment by customers, and fraudulent use of credit cards.

Customer pricing of bank credit cards has changed substantially 

in recent years. Before the mid-1970s, most banks relied entirely on a 

finance charge on customer credit card balances that remained unpaid after 

the initial billing period. Recent changes in financial and regulatory 

conditions have caused many banks to implement periodic fees for maintaining 

customer credit card accounts. As market interest rates increased during 

the late 1970s, the costs of funding credit card services rose significantly. 

Although faced with rising costs, banks in many states were unable to increase 

revenue derived from finance charges because of binding statutory rate ceilings.

A related factor was the gradual phaseout of regulatory limitations 

on deposit rates mandated by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and 

Monetary Control Act of 1980. The costs of funds acquired from bank customers 

increased as banks began to pay higher rates to attract and retain savings 

and time deposits, and as banks started to offer new transactions accounts 

that— unlike regular checking accounts— paid interest on deposits. Finally, 

from March 1980 through early July 1980, the credit restraint program 

administered by the Federal Reserve at the direction of President Carter 

imposed a special deposit requirement that caused some banks and other credit 

card issuers to experience additional costs of providing revolving credit.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-15-

To offset these cost pressures, many banks adopted periodic fees in 

an effort to boost current revenues and to re-price credit card services on 

a basis better suited to an environment in which customer deposit rates are 

unrestricted.-*- Some banks have pursued means of boosting revenues other than 

through imposing periodic fees, such as charging for each transaction billed 

to a credit card account and assessing penalties for late payments, for replacement of lost cards, or for balances that exceed credit limits. Other banks 

have increased merchant discount fees or customer finance charges, where competitive and regulatory conditions have permitted such action, or have started 

charging interest from the date that transactions are posted to an account 

rather than after an initial billing cycle.

A variant of the bank credit card offered by some institutions is 

the so-called "gold card." This specialized type of "premium" bank credit 

card combines the features of the regular bank credit card with a larger credit 

line and a package of additional services that may include accident insurance, 

lost credit card service, hotel and car rental discounts, and free travelers 

checks. Fees charged cardholders for gold card services typically exceed the 

range of fees on regular bank credit card accounts, but ordinarily are less 

than the fees charged for general purpose (travel and entertainment) cards.

One-half of all families in the United States now holds one or more 

bank credit cards, up from nearly two-fifths in 1977 (table 2.1). The proportion of families holding a bank credit card has expanded continually, as 

has the percentage of families that uses bank credit cards, which rose from 

one-fifth in 1971 to nearly one-half in 1982 (table 2.2). 1

1. As providers of "third-party" credit card services, issuers of bank credit 

cards cannot fall back on profits from the sale of goods and services financed 

with such credit cards to cover some costs of providing credit card services.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-16-

2.3 General Purpose Credit Cards^

This type of third-party credit card is oriented toward more 

affluent customers able to pay a larger annual membership fee for access to 

premium credit card services. Since higher income requirements must be met 

to qualify for general purpose credit cards, an element of prestige may be 

attached to carrying such cards as well as some presumption that cardholder 

creditworthiness is less subject to question than with other credit cards. 

Therefore, these programs appeal to customers who travel and/or entertain 

frequently, for whom an easily accepted credit card with a relatively high 

credit limit can be especially convenient.

A variety of ancillary services is typically offered as part of a 

general purpose credit card package. Travel accident insurance, discounts 

on travelers checks, on hotel accommodations, and on car rental, and access 

to check cashing or cash advances from company or affiliated offices or from 

card-activated cash dispensers are examples of these additional services.

In addition to membership fees, card issuers also derive revenues 

from merchant discount charges paid by retailers. Another important feature 

of general purpose credit cards is the requirement that balances be repaid 

within 30 days after billing. Thus, although the average balance for such 

accounts may be large, credit remains outstanding for only a relatively 

short period of time, so that gross financing costs incurred by the card 

issuers are kept fairly low in relation to the volume of billings.

"Gold cards" for a select clientele were first developed as variants

of general purpose credit cards. As with bank credit card plans that later

adopted this strategy, these gold card plans provide additional services and a

larger credit limit at a higher fee and with a more stringent income requirement.

1. Also frequently referred to as "travel and entertainment cards." Major 

issuers of such credit cards include American Express, Carte Blanche, and 

Diner's Club.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-17-

Gold cards also permit repayment of balances over an extended period, in 

contrast to regular travel and entertainment cards that require payment 

within 30 days of billing.

General purpose credit cards are held by almost 15 percent of 

families, up sharply from only 8 percent in 1977 (table 2.1). The percentage 

of families that uses general purpose credit cards has almost doubled since 

1977 (table 2.2).

2.4 Retail Store Credit Cards

Two-party credit cards issued by retail stores are the most widely 

held and used type of credit card. Over three-fifths of families in the 

United States held some kind of retail store credit card in late 1982 (table 

2.1), and most of these families used such cards to some extent (table 2.2). 

Holding and use of retail store cards have continued to expand in recent 

years, even though retail credit cards have long been available and despite 

increasing competition from third-party credit cards, some of which now are 

accepted by many leading department stores and specialty shops.

Retail store cards typically offer lower credit limits and have 

less demanding credit qualification requirements in comparison with thirdparty credit cards. Of course, use of retail credit cards is limited to the 

variety of merchandise carried by the issuing merchant. Retail revolving 

credit plans usually provide customers the option of repaying over an extended 

period of time. Typically, three-fifths of retail credit card customers usually 

pay the entire balance billed to their accounts, about the same proportion of 

non-revolvers as is found with bank credit cards.

Retail credit card plans may be administered and financed either 

"in-house" by the retailer or by an outside firm that contracts with the 

retailer to furnish "private label" credit card services. All costs of

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-18-

operating in-house credit card plans are borne directly by the retailer. 

In-house credit card plans derive revenues from finance charges on credit 

card balances that are not repaid before the end of a billing cycle. Retailers 

have not adopted the strategy followed by many commercial banks of charging 

periodic fees for access to credit card services. To some extent, retail 

establishments may have more leeway than financial institutions in pricing 

credit card services, since— except under conditions of intense price 

competition— some costs of providing credit cards may be recouped from profits 

on sales of merchandise.

Except for the fact that credit cards bearing the retailer's name 

are issued to its customers in both cases, private label and in-house credit 

card plans differ in most respects. Indeed, private label retailer credit 

card plans more closely resemble bank credit card programs. A bank or a 

finance company vendor agrees to conduct and finance a credit card program 

for the retailer, in return for a fee analogous to the merchant discount fee 

paid to banks by retailers who accept bank credit cards. Private label 

credit card plans are used mainly by small- and medium-sized retail firms 

that prefer to purchase the managerial experience and the legal and financial 

resources of a large financial organization instead of bearing the expense 

of developing such capabilities internally.

2.5 Other Credit Cards

The remaining category of credit cards used by consumers is highly 

specialized and appears to be growing slowly. Such credit cards mainly are 

issued by some airlines and car-rental firms. About 7 percent of families 

held this type of credit card in 1981 (table 2.1) and about 5 percent used it 

to some extent (table 2.2).

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-19-

The larger car-rental firms offer credit card accounts that have no 

annual fees and require full payment by the end of each billing period. Some 

companies provide credit card accounts only for businesses. A number of 

major airlines provide credit card plans that are available to individuals, 

permit extended payments, and have no periodic fees. In addition, many 

carriers accept Universal Air Travel Plan credit cards, although this account 

is mainly available for business travel and requires full payment during 

each billing period.

The revenue, cost, and usage characteristics associated with the 

major types of credit card plans reviewed in this chapter reflect efforts 

by card issuers to provide financial services that appeal to customers with 

varied financial requirements. To simplify the discussion in the following 

chapters, the analysis distinguishes mainly between third-party credit cards 

and in-house credit cards, with some separate attention to gasoline company 

credit cards. In the next chapter, in addition, the contrast is sharpened 

between transactions use— a feature of all credit cards— and longer-term 

borrowing, which occurs only with credit cards that permit extended payment

terms.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-20-

3. IMPACT OF CREDIT CARDS ON CONSUMER SPENDING

3.1. Patterns of Credit Card Usage

Approximately two-thirds of the households in the United States hold 

credit cards of some type, as noted in Chapter 2, but the use made of these 

credit cards varies substantially among households. Two basic contrasting 

patterns of usage may be described as "convenience use" for transactions purposes and "installment use" for borrowing activity.

Credit cards enable their holders to make purchases on a deferred 

payment basis. To some card holders, especially "convenience users," the 

significance of this payment deferral mechanism is that it permits them to 

carry smaller amounts of cash than might otherwise be necessary (or to obtain 

cash less frequently), sometimes provides an easier means of transacting a 

purchase than a personal check, and generates receipts that may facilitate 

merchandise returns or expense reimbursement. The use of a credit card also 

provides short-term "bridge" credit between paychecks or in advance of other 

receipts of funds.

Bridge credit in small amounts is essentially a convenience that 

helps a card user to adapt to nonsynchronous flows of income and expenditures. 

To the "installment user," the credit card offers an attractive means to 

obtain credit on a more extended basis. Payment for purchases may be stretched 

over several billing periods in accordance with account agreements which 

commonly require minimum periodic payments of 5 to 10 percent of the total 

amount owed. In this respect, credit cards are more an alternative to fixedamount installment sales contracts or personal loans than to drawing down 

cash or checking account balances.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-21-

The advantages of borrowing by credit cards are several. For 

instance, card users may borrow in the exact amount they wish to spend (within 

their credit limit). In contrast, personal loans generally are available only 

for some minimum amount. Installment sales contracts are likewise usually 

limited by creditors to some minimum feasible size, such as for a major 

appliance or set of furniture. Also, credit card users make only one credit 

application, at the time they request a card, and thereafter can borrow with 

ease (as long as they meet a minimum payment schedule); installment sales 

contracts and personal loans, on the other hand, usually require a separate 

time-consuming process of application and approval for each extension of 

credit.

Of further benefit to installment users of credit cards is the 

payment flexibility of most credit card accounts. Card holders may routinely 

repay any portion of the balance owed, from the minimum amount required up 

to the entire balance, at any time. Other forms of installment credit 

generally specify a fixed monthly payment established at the signing of the 

contract. On such loans, a smaller than scheduled payment may place the 

loan in delinquent status and trigger penalty fees. Partial or full prepayments may result in rebates of prepaid interest on a basis not particularly 

advantageous to the borrower. Even for installment users, then, "convenience" 

is an important attribute of credit cards— convenience in borrowing, primarily, 

rather than convenience in transacting.

Not every card holder fits neatly into one usage category or the 

other. Convenience users who ordinarily pay credit card bills in full may 

sometimes repay by installments— for example, after making an especially 

large purchase. Installment users, in turn, may at times pay off credit card 

debts in full— for example, after receiving a large tax refund. Nevertheless,

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-22-

card holders generally can be classified into one category or the other 

according to their customary payment habits. From responses to questions 

concerning repayment practices on credit card accounts contained in the Board's 

1977 Consumer Credit Survey, it appeared that about half of U.S. card holders 

were convenience users and the other half installment users.

3.2. Impact of Credit Cards on Expenditures

Isolating the impact of credit cards on consumer spending is difficult. Credit cards are so widely held, and the volume of business transacted 

through cards is so large, that it seems only reasonable to suppose that 

credit cards affect the way people spend. Using a credit card to make some 

unplanned purchase, or a purchase larger than intended, is perhaps a widely 

shared experience. Yet the precise nature and magnitude of the credit card's 

impact on spending remain elusive. Do credit cards in fact cause overall 

spending to be larger than would otherwise be the case? Or do they primarily 

affect the timing of purchases? Or perhaps the composition, rather than the 

total amount, of consumer spending?

The relevance of these issues to the discount-for-cash debate 

stems most directly from the possible offset to credit card costs at cardhonoring retailers that may arise from any increase in sales volume associated 

with acceptance of credit cards. Any effect of credit cards on individual 

spending behavior would seem to carry some implications for aggregate spending 

as well. Examining the relationship between credit cards and aggregate consumption, therefore, can help in assessing whether the relationship of credit 

card use and sales volume at retail stores is significant. If use of credit 

cards stimulates aggregate spending, retailers as a group should derive 

increased sales; but if card use has no appreciable impact on total spending, 

then retailers as a group would realize no net sales gain to offset the

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-23-

industry-wide costs of honoring credit cards. Of course, merchants who 

honor credit cards might gain sales from those who do not accept them, but 

that situation becomes less likely as credit cards reach a mature stage of 

development and retailer acceptance of credit cards becomes widespread.

The macroeconomic impact of credit cards is an important issue in 

its own right. Any factor that may influence spending habits of consumers 

is relevant to public policy concerns focused on the general level of prices 

and the scale of economic activity. However, these issues— to be discussed 

briefly in Chapter 5— appear secondary to the fundamental concern with consumer 

equity embodied in the Cash Discount Act, which is to identify and to minimize 

any possible subsidy of credit card users by cash users.

Microeconomic evidence. One way to gain insights into how credit 

cards affect consumer spending is to question a representative sampling of 

persons about their spending and card use habits. Some information of this 

type was surveyed in Chapter 2, and more recent survey results concerning 

unplanned purchases are discussed below.

Credit cards are sometimes believed to induce people to spend more 

than they otherwise would by weakening the discipline on spending imposed by 

in-pocket cash or checking account balances. .Accordingly, many retailers feel 

that they can boost their sales by accepting credit cards, and critics sometimes assail the card for promoting ill-considered outlays that could lead 

to financial problems for some households.

As suggested above, however, the common view that credit cards 

influence spending does not necesarily imply greater spending in total, for 

either a given household or in the aggregate. It may be that only the timing 

or the composition of spending is affected. The convenience user, for example, 

may buy on one day what he would otherwise wait a week or so to buy, with no

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-24-

difference in his total spending during the period. The installment user, of 

course, would likely alter the timing of his purchases more substantially, 

since without a credit card he might have to save for a purchase for a considerably longer time than would a convenience user.

For any credit card purchase, a compositional effect may be linked 

with the timing effect. Insofar as the credit card purchase must ultimately 

be paid for by transferring funds, the card user may at some point cut back 

on other expenditures, with no direct long-term impact on his overall spending. 

An article of clothing purchased by credit card— perhaps on impulse— might 

be "paid for" later by forgoing an alternative clothing purchase, or by 

sacrificing some unrelated expenditure, such as an expensive dinner.

To obtain some notion of the possible link between credit cards, 

unplanned or impulsive purchases, and changes in a household's total spending, 

the Federal Reserve commissioned the Survey Research Center to include several 

special questions on this subject in its January 1983 monthly survey of households. The answers to these questions did not indicate an especially strong 

connection between credit card usage and household spending, a result consistent with the finding from other surveys that about one half of cardholding households typically use cards for convenience rather than to augment 

purchasing power on a longer-term basis through installment use.

In the January 1983 survey, respondents were first asked if in the 

past three months they had made any purchase larger than $20 that they "had 

not planned to shop for when [they] went into the store." Respondents were 

then asked, for each instance mentioned, what they had purchased, the price 

of the item, why they had made the purchase, and whether they had done so 

with cash, check, or credit card. Those who had used a credit card were

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-25-

then asked if they would have purchased the item had they not had a credit 

card, and, if not, whether they would have purchased the item within the 

next few months.

Forty-one percent of the survey respondents indicated that they had 

made at least one unplanned purchase of $20 or larger in the preceding three 

months. About 40 percent of those respondents reported more than one unplanned 

purchase. The most common unplanned purchase fell in the broad category of 

clothing, jewelry, and personal items, followed by household items including 

major durables. Hobby, recreational, and educational items comprised the next 

largest category. The purchased items covered a broad price range. Twentyfive and thirty dollars were the most frequently mentioned amounts (for the 

first purchase discussed), but 35 percent mentioned purchase amounts of $100 

or more, and almost 7 percent reported purchases of $500 or more.

For each unplanned purchase, respondents were asked "what was the

main reason that you decided to purchase the item at that time?"^ Not

surprisingly, nearly half the respondents answered that they "needed/wanted/

liked" the item purchased. After all, any purchase presumably is made in

order to meet some perceived need or desire, even if the perception of that

need develops only a few moments in advance of the purchase. Some of the

other responses were also need-related— for example, some said the item was

purchased to replace an older item that was "worn out" or "needed replacing

anyway." The primary reason for purchase not directly related to need was

attractive pricing of the item, variously described as being "on sale," a

"bargain," or a "good deal." Thirty percent of the respondents cited this

reason. Thirteen percent said they bought the item as a gift or "to surprise 1

1. Reasons given for purchase were unprompted; i.e., respondents answered in 

any manner they chose, and not, for instance, by selecting their answer from 

a list of possible reasons.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-26-

someone." Reasons mentioned by less than 2 percent of the respondents were 

that they "had extra money" or that the item "was hard to find" elsewhere or 

at other times.

TABLE 3.1

UNPLANNED PURCHASE ACTIVITY

1

| Number of 

| Responses

1 As Percent of:

| Category Total 

I Responses Responses

Total Responses 644 100.0 100.0

No unplanned purchase 380 59.0 59.0

Made unplanned purchase 264 41.0 41.0

How Paid for Unplanned Purchase 2591 100.0

"Other" 8 3.1 1.2

Cash 135 52.1 21.0

Check 46 17.8 7.1

Credit card 70 27.0 10.9

Behavior If Had No Credit Card 70 100.0

Buy at same time 40 57.1 6.2

No purchase at time 30 42.9 4.7

Subsequent Behavior 30 100.0

Purchase within few months 19 63.3 3.0

No purchase at all 11 36.7 1.7

1. Five respondents making unplanned purchases did not provide information 

about method of transaction.

Responses to household survey, 1983.

A particularly interesting result of the survey is that only slightly 

more than one-fourth of those making an unplanned purchase used a credit card 

to do so (see table 3.1). Unfortunately, no "control group" data exist on the 

proportion of planned purchases made by credit card in the relevant categories 

(clothing and personal, household goods, hobby and recreational). Still, a frequency of one card purchase in four would not seem to establish a particularly

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-27-

strong relationship between unplanned purchases and credit card use.1 

A full 70 percent of the unplanned purchases were made either by cash 

(52 percent) or by check (18 percent). About 3 percent were made by other, 

unidentified, means. When purchases were classified by size, the incidence 

of card use appeared to increase as purchases became larger, but not to a 

striking extent. For unplanned purchases above $100, 31 percent were transacted by credit card compared with 25 percent for transactions of $100 or less.

In all (considering only the first item mentioned), 70 respondents 

made an unplanned purchase by credit card. Forty of these purchasers 

(57 percent) said they would have made the purchase at the time even if they 

had not carried a credit card— they were not asked how— and 30 respondents 

(43 percent) said they would not have made the purchase at that time without 

their credit card. Finally, the 30 respondents who would not have made the 

purchase were asked if they would have made it within the next few months—

19 said yes, they would have, and 11 said no.

Responses to hypothetical questions, of course, have considerable

limitations. Statements as to what one would do if circumstances were different entail varying degrees of reliability for different respondents.

Still, in the absence of a compelling reason to suspect a large bias in the

answers provided, the survey results suggest that in only a small number of

cases might credit cards ultimately prove decisive in the completion of an

unplanned purchase. Seventy-three percent of the unplanned purchases studied

were transacted by means other than credit card; another 15 percent would

1. In the Board's 1983 survey of retailers, among stores accepting credit cards, 

about 22 percent of total sales at clothing stores were transacted by card, and 

about 16 percent of furniture and appliance store sales were by card. This 

survey is discussed in Chapters 4 and 6.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-28-

have been made at the same time even without access to a card; another 

7 percent would have been carried out at some later time. Only 4 percent of 

all the completed purchases (11 of 259), or 16 percent of credit card purchases (11 of 70), would never have been made without a credit card, in the 

judgment of the purchasers themselves.

Unplanned purchases, of course, represent only a fraction of total 

purchases. If the above proportions are reasonably accurate, it seems likely 

that far less than 4 percent of all purchases— planned and unplanned— could 

be described as sales that would never have taken place at all without credit 

cards. Moreover, even for those unanticipated purchases identified as entirely 

dependent on credit cards, it is still not possible to say that they represent 

a net addition to total spending. In the absence of the card-dependent purchases and subsequent payment for them, it may be that different purchases 

would have been made at some point, so that the total spending and total 

saving of the individuals would have been the same over time in either case.

Macroeconomic evidence. If individuals alter their spending behavior 

as a result of holding credit cards, summation of individual outlays should 

result in a corresponding alteration of aggregate consumption spending. If 

such a link could be detected, it would tend to substantiate the argument that 

incremental sales from credit cards offset the purportedly higher cost of 

credit card transactions (thereby making it less certain that credit card 

costs are imbedded in retail prices).

As discussed in the preceding subsection, credit cards could generate 

changes in the timing, the composition, or the amount of spending. Credit 

cards could cause incidental variations in the timing of purchases within a 

short period (e.g., between paydays) and have few significant macroeconomic

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-29-

effects. 1 Or, through household exercise of the borrowing function, they 

could assist a more fundamental longer-term shift in the timing and/or the 

composition of purchases.

The most direct way in which credit cards might influence the 

total of consumption spending would be by increasing consumer propensities 

to spend (reducing consumer propensities to save). If consumers are considered to have some desired rate of saving in a cardless environment, then 

total spending could be enlarged by the existence of cards only if actual 

saving by consumers fell below the initial desired level. This outcome 

might seem to hinge upon a widespread lack of consumer self-discipline in 

saving, resulting in a condition of chronic overindebtedness. An alternative 

explanation, advanced by T. Russell and also tested by E. Montgomery, is 

that prior imperfections in credit markets may have created a situation in 

which consumer borrowing and total consumption were constrained to lower 

than desired levels.^ To the extent that credit cards served to mitigate 

these imperfections, they would tend to reduce the saving rate and boost 

consumption. 12

1. Changes in the timing of purchases due to card use could theoretically 

affect the cyclicality of aggregate consumption spending, and therefore 

economic activity in general. Since credit cards (like all consumer credit 

instruments) make possible a greater dichotomy between current spending and 

current income, they could tend to be cyclically destablizing by boosting 

spending even further during a boom period, or by retarding spending at other 

times as repayment obligations impose a competing claim to spending as an end 

use of current income. On the other hand, credit cards could just as well 

serve a stabilizing function, for instance, by enabling households to maintain 

a desired long-run spending path during periods of temporary unexpected shortfalls in income. There is little documentation to suggest that these possible 

cyclical effects are very important in actuality. It is also possible that 

individual cycles of credit card use and repayment are differently phased and 

largely cancel out, resulting in little overall impact on economic aggregates.

2. Thomas Russell, The Economics of Bank Credit Cards (New York, Praeger, 

1975).

Edward B. Montgomery, "Tests of Alternative Explanations of the Decline in the 

Personal Saving Rate" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1982).

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-30-

If credit cards stimulate total spending— whether by relaxing 

capital market constraints on consumption or by undermining the consumer's 

will power to save— the impact should be evident in a declining aggregate 

saving rate as credit cards become more prevalent. During the 1970s, thirdparty credit cards were gaining broad distribution and use and, by and large, 

the saving rate did drop somewhat from earlier levels. By itself, however, 

without regard to the myriad other factors that influence spending, this 

fact is of little analytical value.

Russell's discussion of the link between credit cards and the 

saving rate was largely theoretical, in the context of a model in which 

the consumer arrives at an optimal allocation of lifetime income over time. 

Credit cards are introduced into the model as one method of diminishing 

restraints on the ability of younger consumers to borrow in anticipation of 

future income. For the U.S. economy, however, with its already well-developed 

consumer credit markets providing other means of obtaining credit, it becomes 

a difficult empirical question as to what extent credit cards might introduce 

any further appreciable relaxation of capital market constraints. Also, it 

should be noted, the Russell model would result only in a redistribution of 

consumption spending over time, unless total desired lifetime consumption 

is altered by the existence of credit cards.

In one of the few explicit macroeconomic studies of this issue, 

Montgomery calculated a maximum possible reduction in the saving rate of 

0.3 percentage points during 1978 that might be associated with credit cards.^ 

He also concluded from cross-sectional data that credit cards appeared to 

exert more of a downward impact on the saving rate in 1977 than in 1970

1. Montgomery, "Alternative Explanations," p. 26.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-31-

but that the magnitude of the impact was probably very small.^ G. Garcia, 

summarizing her investigation of the literature in this area, concluded in 

1980 that "the issue of the effects of credit cards on consumption remains a 

subject for further research...The relationship of credit to the expansion 

of and inflation in the economy remains to be adequately explained both at 

the theoretical and empirical level."2

On the whole, the household survey on unplanned purchases discussed 

above as well as existing macroeconomic research provide little grounds for 

believing that credit cards generate incremental sales in sufficient volume 

to offset credit card costs to any measurable degree. 12

1. Ibid., p. 166.

2. Gillian Garcia, "Credit Cards: An Interdisciplinary Survey," Journal of 

Consumer Research, vol. 6 (March 1980), p. 333.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-32-

4. EFFECT OF CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS ON COSTS OF RETAILERS

In Section 202 of the Cash Discount Act, the Congress designated 

"the effect of charge card usage on merchants, including the effects on 

merchant costs," as a major topic to be examined in the Federal Reserve 

study. This part of the report primarily addresses the question of the 

costs incurred by retailers from credit card transactions, following some 

further discussion of the impact of credit cards on merchant revenues.

4.1. The Incentive to Engage in Credit Card Transactions

An individual merchant has two obvious possible motivations to sell 

goods and services on credit. One is to increase sales: without credit, a

particular sale might not be completed at all; in addition, the provision of 

credit through the merchant's own credit plan might establish a bond with the 

customer, leading to additional future transactions. A second reason for a 

merchant to sell on his own credit plan might be to enhance revenues by earning 

finance charges on receivables. Most empirical studies, however, have concluded 

that the direct variable and overhead expenses of operating a credit program 

(including the cost of funds) have not been fully covered by finance charge 

revenues. In practice, the sales generation motive appears to have been the 

dominant consideration underlying selling on credit.

The provision of open-book credit to known and trusted customers is 

a practice perhaps as old as retail trade itself. The broadening and formalizing of charge account credit was pioneered by the large full-line department 

stores in the 1940s and 1950s with the issuing of credit cards to customers 

for use in the issuing store and its branches. Initially, convenience was 

the primary attraction to consumers of the store credit card account, since 

most stores required full payment within the billing period of 30 to sometimes 

90 days. In time, major retailers adopted the practice of providing qualified

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-33-

customers an extended payment option (with finance charges accruing on unpaid 

balances). As a result, open-ended "revolving credit" began to substitute for 

longer-term closed-end credit as well as for cash transactions. Third-party 

card issuers subsequently entered the field by offering cards that could be 

used at any business that contracted with the issuer for this purpose.

For both in-house and third-party credit card plans, generation of 

incremental sales above the cash-only volume was the dominant consideration 

underlying their adoption. In many instances, the strategy may have been 

defensive— to avoid losing sales to card-honoring competitors— but was nevertheless attuned to achieving higher sales than deemed otherwise possible. It 

was generally believed that a card-holding customer, unfettered by the limitation of pocket cash or current checking account balance, would spend larger 

amounts than otherwise likely.

To businesses issuing their own card, the building of customer 

loyalty was an important sales-stimulating aspect of credit cards. People 

in possession of a store's credit card might habitually gravitate to that 

store to shop, and the monthly billing statement served as a convenient 

vehicle for presenting information about new products and services, special 

sales, or anything else designed to spur additional purchases.

To smaller businesses, the honoring of credit cards issued by banks 

or other third parties expanded their sales potential without the necessity 

for merchants to manage their own credit card plans. Expenses of application 

review, billing, and collection would be handled for a fee by the third-party 

issuer operating with the advantage of cost-minimizing economies of scale. 

Today, any clothing boutique or similar occupant of the modern shopping mall 

would likely suffer a decided competitive disadvantage if it did not accept 

credit cards. Even so, it is questionable whether the existence of credit

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-34-

cards generates any incremental revenues for the retailing industry as a 

whole.

As discussed in Chapter 3, little support has been found for the 

view that card-holding consumers over the longer run spend more (save less) 

of their income than they would without credit cards. But if they do not, 

then it would seem that card-honoring merchants can benefit only at the 

expense of nonhonoring merchants. On the other hand, if most merchants 

honor credit cards, as may be true today, then none enjoys an advantage over 

any other by doing so, and competition must focus upon other factors such as 

product differences, pricing, and merchandise return policies. In this 

situation, any selling costs incurred from honoring cards, above the cost of 

selling for cash, could be regarded as a net additional cost, in view of the 

absence of any offsetting incremental sales revenue for the industry as a 

whole.2

A good analogy to the impact of credit cards on retailers might be 

found in the grocery store industry's issuance of trading stamps several 

years ago. The first stores to offer stamps apparently were able to attract 

customers from competing stores, and to more than cover the costs of stamps 

through incremental sales volume. However, when others followed suit in selfdefense, it became questionable whether any store— or the industry as a whole— 

benefitted from giving out stamps, since it is unlikely that people began to 

eat more in order to obtain stamps. In time, grocery stores grew dissatisfied 12

1. Given the present stage of widespread credit card possession, it is not 

even clear that card-honoring merchants as a group take net sales away from 

non-honoring merchants as a group. If non-honoring merchants are able to 

appeal to price-sensitive cash buyers by offering lower prices, then they may 

gain as much in sales to such customers as they lose from credit users forced 

to shop elsewhere.

2. The timing effects associated with card use could redistribute sales among 

retailers, but this result might be largely random, and likely to "even out" 

for given retailers over a period of time.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-35-

with the expense of administering stamp giveaways, and many customers became 

suspicious that the cost of the stamps might be imbedded in the prices they 

were paying. Customers who disliked the bother of collecting and redeeming 

stamps might legitimately have complained that they were subsidizing the avid 

stamp collectors by paying the same prices for their groceries. In response 

to all these negative aspects, some stores dropped their stamp programs and 

began to advertise heavily a policy of lower prices. Eventually, nearly all 

grocery stores abandoned trading stamp issuance.

This analogy by no means implies that retailers will some day 

abandon credit cards, or even that they would be wise to do so. It may well 

be that the consumer benefits of credit cards— the ability to alter the 

timing of their purchases, to carry minimal amounts of cash, to borrow for 

short periods, and so on— are of more substance than the perceived benefits 

of receiving trading stamps from grocery stores, which was, in essence, an 

inefficient means for consumers to obtain price discounts. The primary point 

of the analogy is to illustrate that the apparent gains to particular 

retailers from offering some service can evaporate if competitors offer an 

identical service, raising costs but leaving total industry-wide sales 

unaffected.

If, in fact, the benefit of added sales volume from credit cards is 

largely illusory on an industry-wide basis, the crucial consideration to the 

subsidy issue becomes whether credit card transactions are more costly to 

carry out than cash (or check) transactions. If they are more costly, and 

those costs are not covered by the finance charges and user fees paid by card 

holders, then it would appear that cash buyers may indeed subsidize card users 

by paying identical prices, or that retailers as a group may accept smaller 

profit margins than otherwise available, or some combination of these outcomes.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-36-

4.2. Costs to Retailers of Credit Card Transactions

Comparative costs to retailers of accepting different means of 

payment have been examined in a small number of earlier studies. Also, in 

connection with this report to Congress, the Federal Reserve Board conducted 

a survey of retail businesses on the costs of accepting cash, check, and 

credit cards. The results of this survey are discussed below.1

At first glance, it might appear a foregone conclusion that credit 

card transactions are more costly than other means of payment insofar as 

merchants pay some percentage of their third-party credit card sales to the 

card issuers, or incur various costs in operating their own credit card 

plans that have no corollary in cash transactions. Many retailers tend to 

view the costs of handling cash transactions as equivalent to the cost of 

doing business— a sales clerk, for instance, must be on hand to conduct 

transactions of whatever type. Thus there is a tendency to regard the marginal cost of selling for cash as zero, but this view should not be adopted 

without critical examination.

There are many elements of cost associated with the handling of a 

sales transaction. Some costs may be higher for check or credit card transactions, but others may be higher for cash. Included among the relevant 

cost concepts, for example, would be the time required to complete a transaction, which may in turn influence the number of check-out stations and 

sales clerks that a store needs. Credit card transactions absorb time 

because credit slips must be written and frequently some sort of authorization 

procedure undertaken. Personal checks usually trigger certain time-consuming 

precautionary steps, such as inspecting and copying down identification data

1. Appendix B provides some information on the specifications of this survey 

conducted in the spring of 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-37-

or summoning a manager from elsewhere in the store to approve acceptance of 

the check. Cash transactions most likely consume less time than check or 

credit card transactions, but the counting of cash received, the making of 

change, and the stocking and replenishment of cash registers with currency 

and coin are cash-related activities that occupy an employee's time. Time 

consumed in reconciling sales records with cash, checks, and credit slips on 

hand may vary with the proportion of sales transacted by each means, and 

from one business to another.

Security-related expenses comprise a large family of costs in which 

further variation may be found among the different means of payment. Included 

in such a concept would be both direct expenses of security precautions plus 

an allowance for any uncovered risk associated with each transaction medium.

An obvious risk, for example, is the possibility of theft. This particular 

risk is likely to be more pronounced for cash because the full negotiability 

of cash makes it an attractive target. Acceptance of personal checks entails 

the risk that the check may be uncollectable, because the writer may not 

have sufficient funds on deposit or for some other reason. Security risks 

borne by operators of in-house credit card plans include the costs associated 

with delinquent and uncollectable accounts.

For a fee, of course, merchants can generally protect themselves 

from many of these risks. Employment of in-store security personnel, rental 

of armored car service, use of more technologically sophisticated equipment, 

payment of bonding and insurance fees, and subscription to a check guarantee 

service all represent costs that retailers can incur to minimize losses from 

theft, fraud, and other causes. The costs arising from loss and protection 

against loss may well differ among the types of payment and among different 

businesses, and it is by no means obvious which means of transaction carries

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-38-

the highest security-related costs, or how consistent the allocation of such 

costs by transaction type would be from firm to firm.

Still other costs to retailers can be associated with the method of 

transaction. Every method other than cash involves some delay in receipt of 

funds by the retailer, and therefore an implicit financing cost in forgone 

interest on the funds eventually to be transferred. And in-house credit card 

plans involve a broad spectrum of bookkeeping and collection costs. These 

expenses, of course, may be offset at least partially by finance charge 

revenues.

Perhaps the most visible transactions cost to retailers is a 

factoring fee called the "merchant discount"— the fee paid by retailers to 

third-party card issuers, figured as some percentage of the volume of credit 

card sales. This fee generally varies between 1 and 5 percent for different 

merchants, depending chiefly on total credit card sales volume and per unit 

transaction size. It can be thought of as partly covering various operating 

expenses that are shifted from the merchant to the card issuer, such as 

billing and collecting costs that might otherwise arise if in-house card 

plans were maintained, or the cost of loss and loss prevention associated 

with cash and check. However, since the card issuer obtains the revenues 

from finance charges and related fees as well as absorbing the costs of 

providing credit, the existence of the merchant discount may also reflect 

some deficiency in the card issuer's coverage of credit costs solely through 

financing income.

Empirical studies. A number of studies have examined the costs of 

credit card operations, or compared some aspects of credit costs with the 

cost of cash and checks. These include a study by Touche Ross & Co. of 

costs and revenues from revolving credit at department stores in New York, a

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-39-

study by Payments Systems, Inc. of comparative costs for cash, check and 

credit transactions, and a study by R. Grant comparing the costs of these 

modes of transactions in Great Britain.1

The Touche Ross study collected detailed cost and revenue data for 

a 12-month period in 1972-73 from 17 retail firms in New York State operating 

in-house revolving credit plans (generally linked to a store-issued credit 

card). The analysis covered all costs relating to new accounts processing, 

account servicing, collection, space and equipment, payroll, and management. 

Touche Ross also calculated the cost of capital associated with each store's 

investment in receivables using two alternative methods— one based on each 

firm's own capital structure and one based on an assumed capital cost rate 

of 8 percent.

The principal finding of the study was that "retail stores in New 

York do not collect sufficient finance charge revenues on their revolving 

credit accounts to cover the costs of extending and servicing such accounts. 

For the 17 stores surveyed, the deficiency totalled...3.71 percent of 

credit sales. Each of the 17 stores incurred deficits on their revolving 

accounts.Summary cost information from the Touche Ross study is presented 

in-table 4.1. As the table indicates, the cost of capital was the largest 

component, accounting for about half of total credit costs (based on the

1. Payments Systems, Inc. Cost of Cash: A Strategic Analysis (Atlanta, 1981)

Touche Ross & Co. "Economics of New York State Retail Store Revolving Credit 

Operation for the Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 1973," in Robert P. Shay and 

William C. Dunkelberg, Retail Store Credit Card Use in New York. Studies in 

Consumer Credit, No. 4 (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, 

1975).

Robert M. Grant, "Transaction Costs to Retailers of Different Methods of 

Payment. Result of a Pilot Study" (Report prepared at The City University, 

London, 1982; processed). 2

2. Shay and Dunkelberg, Retail Store Credit Card Use in New York, p. 9.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-40-

individualized estimate of capital cost). Personnel costs and bad debt 

losses were the next largest elements of cost.

TABLE 4.1

REVOLVING CREDIT REVENUE AND COSTS 

AT 17 NEW YORK RETAIL STORES 

AS A PERCENT OF REVOLVING CREDIT SALES

_______ All Stores (17)

Amount Percent

$(000) of Sales

NET REVOLVING CREDIT SALES (excluding 

finance charge revenue) $776,453.5 100.00%

FINANCE CHARGE REVENUE (net) 59,033.9 7.60%

CREDIT COSTS:

Personnel costs: 

New accounts 3,914.3 .50%

Account servicing 8,060.9 1.04

Account collection 3,265.9 .42

Additional sales personnel 999.1 .13

Supporting services 866.8 .11

Management 376.7 .05

Data processing 1,941.2 .25

Total personnel costs 19,424.9 2.50%

Data processing equipment 1,261.0 .16

Credit investigation 1,075.8 .14

Bad debt losses 10,853.5 1.40

Collection agency fees 1,329.1 .17

Credit space and equipment 1,555.4 .20

Postage 3,078.0 .40

Communication 1,161.5 .15

Supplies and other 3,602.5 .46

Cost of capital 44,533.6 5.73

Total credit cards 87,875.3 11.31%

EXCESS/(DEFICIENCY) OF REVENUE OVER COSTS $(28,814.4) (3.71)%

EXCESS/(DEFICIENCY) OF REVENUE OVER COSTS

(at 8 percent cost of capital) $(16,835.9) (2.17)%

Source: Touche Ross & Co., "Economics of Revolving Credit," from exhibit II,

p. 76.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-41-

The Touche Ross study reflected considerable effort to determine 

relatively precise cost estimates from accounting records and from extensive 

on-site discussions with store personnel. Although much judgmental estimation was necessary to allocate certain types of costs between credit and 

non-credit sales, the study did a credible job of establishing that the costs 

to retailers of revolving credit operations exceeded financing revenues at the 

stores examined.^ The study did not address the issue of incremental sales 

revenue that might be attributable to credit cards, nor did it evaluate the 

store-card as a marketing tool. The relationship of the deficits incurred 

on credit card operations to the overall profit margin on goods sold on 

credit was also outside the scope of the study.

In 1980, Payments Systems, Inc. (PSl) made an extensive study of 

the costs associated with cash transactions, measured on a per transaction 

basis. The study compared certain aspects of these costs, termed "handling 

costs," with corresponding costs for checks and credit cards, and concluded 

that "the per retail transaction cost of credit cards and cash is near the 

same— about $.45— 'and checks only carry a small margin of higher costs."

PSI asserted that "the costs of handling cash are many times higher than 

previously be 1ieved.. .(thus) retailers should take a new look at operating 

efficiencies in payment acceptance and at the comparative acceptance 

of new payment methods."2

1. In evaluating an earlier Touche Ross & Co. study using similar methodology, 

the National Commission on Consumer Finance found the allocation procedures 

used by Touche Ross to be reasonable, and accepted the Touche Ross finding 

that in-house revolving credit plans operate at a deficit. While the Touche 

Ross studies and National Commission commentary are at least 10 years old, 

subsequent increases in the cost of capital in excess of finance charges

have likely preserved the validity of those earlier findings. See National 

Commission, Consumer Credit in the United States (Government Printing Office, *2

1972) p. 145.

2. Payment Systems, Inc., Cost of Cash: A Strategic Analysis, p. viii.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-42-

The PSI study also calculated a "total system" cost of cash 

transactions, which added security costs and theft losses to handling costs, 

raising the estimated cost of cash to about 55 cents per transaction. No 

estimate was presented for a total system cost for checks or credit cards, 

however. Thus the major c osts of billing, collecting, bad debt expenses, 

and use of capital (for in-house card plans) were omitted from cost comparisons, as was the merchant discount fee for third-party cards, and losses on 

uncollectable checks for that type of transaction. The PSI estimates for 

total system costs of cash are reproduced in table 4.2, and the comparative 

handling costs for the three payment methods are provided in table 4.3.

On the whole, the PSI study likely succeeded in making its readers 

more conscious of the non-trivial costs associated with cash and therefore 

with the possibility of cost reduction through improved cash handling. But 

because the comparison with other means of transaction concentrated on 

handling costs to the exclusion of other major elements of cost, the study 

was not directly relevant to the issue of subsidization of credit buyers by 

cash buyers. Indirectly, by demonstrating a rough equivalence in point-ofsale and other "handling" costs among the three payment methods, the PSI 

study imparted credibility to the practical guideline of many retailers that 

the marginal cost of cash is in effect zero and the marginal cost of (thirdparty) credit cards approximates the merchant discount.

Aside from limitations that stem from the incomplete coverage of 

costs, several other limitations of the PSI study can be noted. Among problems 

pointed out by PSI are certain difficulties with some of the cost allocations, 

such as for security costs. PSI, in fact, considered the allocation problem 

to be the study's major limitation.^ 1

1. Ibid., p. 199.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TOTAL SYSTEM COSTS OF CASH

-43-

TABLE 4.2

Per Retail Transaction

Mean Median

Handling costs of retailers $.41 $ .30

Handling costs of banks .04 .04

Armored car service .02 .02

Retailer and Bank Security .06 —

Retailer and Bank Theft and Loss .02 .01

$.55 $ .37

Source: Payments Systems, Inc., Cost of Cash : A Strategic Analy sis, p. 267.

TABLE 4 .3

HANDLING COSTS OF CASH BY MODE OF TRANSACTION

Per Transaction

(Means)

Cash Checks Credit Cards

Point-of-sale transaction $ .24 $ .40 $ .36

Replenish registers .05 — —

Reconcile registers .08 .05 .03

Reconcile in-store control .02 .01 .01

Reconcile out-store control .02 .01 .01

Prepare deposits .03 .02 .02

Transport deposits by internal employee .01 .01 .01

Total $ .45 $ .50 $ .44

Source: Payments Systems, Inc., Cost of Cash : A Strategic Analyisis, p. 268.

Some questionable decisions were made in the PSI study that served 

to narrow the gap between estimated cash costs and other costs. Most notably, 

PSI chose to use mean cost for the various functions examined rather than the 

median cost, even though at one point it described median costs as "representing 

the more stable and conservative data and analysis."1 Use of median costs 

would have lowered the estimated handling cost of cash by about 10 cents, 1

1. Ibid., p. 228.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
44-

placing cash measurably below the other modes of transactions. Also, though 

cautioning the reader that not all stores experienced certain types of costs, 

PSI included each functional cost calculation in the all-retailer estimates 

of table 4.3 without any weighting to reflect its prevalence among retailers. 

These costs were only minor components of the total, however.

In a study of retailer experience in the United Kingdom, R. Grant 

concluded that the costs associated with credit cards exceeded the costs of 

cash or check transactions, by approximately the amount of merchant discount 

fees or in-house administration costs, but that per unit reductions in fixed 

costs resulting from net additional sales more than offset the higher direct 

costs of credit cards. The economization on fixed costs through incremental 

sales, however, was based entirely on assumption, rather than on empirical 

evidence.

Grant's cost calculations are shown in table 4.4. Categories 

listed in the table roughly coincide with those examined by PSI. Information 

on average merchant discounts and any other charges imposed by suppliers of 

payment services were obtained from the suppliers, cross-checked with interview information from retailers. The other operating costs were estimated 

on the basis of intensive interviews with five retail organizations and from 

more limited contacts with a number of other retailers. Grant noted considerable difficulty in identifying such costs accurately. "None of these 

costs," he stated, "were separately identified in retailers' accounting 

systems in part because of the difficulties of allocating joint labor, 

administrative and overhead costs, first to payment functions in general 

and, second, between individual types of payments. 1

1. Grant, "Transaction Costs to Retailers," p. 4.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-45-

AVERAGE COSTS OF CASH, CHECKS, CREDIT CARDS, AND IN-HOUSE CREDIT 

AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE RETAILER'S REVENUE FROM EACH TYPE OF PAYMENT, 1981

TABLE 4.4

Cash

%

Check

%

Bank

Credit

Card

%

T&E

Cards

%

In-house

credit

account

%

Discount charge «_ _ 2.55 3.80 _

Salesperson's time 0.17 0.27 0.19 0.80 0.28

Additional cost of administraton

of cash and credit accounts 0.40 - - - 3.73

Cost of bank visit 0.35 0.17 0.66 - -

Bank charges 0.28 0.40 0.37 0.04 0.15

Cost of credit 0.06 0.06 0.12 0.54 -

Losses from error, theft, fraud 0.25 0.15 0.01 0.01 0.12

Insurance 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.01 ““

TOTAL OF POSITIVE COST ITEMS 1.56 1.06 3.91 4.48 4.28

Reduction in unit overhead costs 

arising from increased sales 

generated by credit cards

and credit accounts -5.57 -8.33 -8.25

NET COST 1.56 1.06 -1.66 -3.85 -3.97

Source: R. Grant, "Transaction Costs to Retailers," table 1, p. 5.

As shown in the table, Grant calculated that the cost of cash 

averaged 1.56 percent of the total volume of cash sales, that the cost of 

checks average 1.06 percent of check sales, and that the costs of credit card 

plans ranged from about 4 to 4-1/2 percent of sales. The major difference 

between cash and checks was attributable to "additional administrative cost," 

which for cash represented primarily the cost of security precautions. For 

bank credit cards, the 2.55 percent discount charge represented the main 

reason that credit card costs were higher than for other types of payment. 

Subtracting that fee from total direct costs of bank cards indicates that

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-46-

retailer operating costs for these cards lay midway between the cost of cash 

and the cost of checks.

In discussing the possibility that acceptance of credit cards 

boosts sales, Grant cited testimony of retailers before a government commission that the principal effects of credit cards were "encouraging impulse 

purchase, increasing the average value of purchases by consumers, and 

facilitating purchases by overseas visitors.The possible fallacy in this 

view as applicable on an industry-wide basis has already been addressed. In 

any case, Grant calculated the reduction in fixed cost by assuming that, for 

bank credit cards, 20 percent of revenues represented incremental sales; for 

T&E and in-house cards, incremental sales were assumed to be 30 percent of 

revenues. Thus the seemingly important finding that credit cards lower per 

unit costs when added sales are considered— and that T&E and in-house cards 

lower per unit costs by more than bank cards— flows almost entirely from the 

assumption that this is the case.

While Grant's study sheds no empirical light on whether or not 

credit cards affect sales, it demonstrates that the cost-reduction benefit 

of any sales boost would depend importantly on the ratio of fixed costs to 

total revenues, and that this ratio varies widely across industries. If 

fixed costs are very low relative to sales, then any incremental sales gain 

will result in only a very small reduction in per unit fixed costs. Grant 

identified "petrol dealers" (gasoline stations) as an extreme example of a 

business with a low fixed cost-to-revenue ratio, which, coupled with a relatively low profit margin, implied that "even very large increases in petrol 

sales (due to credit card acceptance) would fail to offset the higher costs 

of credit transactions."2 12

1. Ibid, p. 12.

2. Ibid, p. 15.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1983 survey of retailers. In order to obtain an assessment of the 

relative costs to retailers of cash, check, and credit card transactions 

from a broad spectrum of businesses in the United States, the Federal Reserve 

commissioned a survey of approximately 700 retail organizations. The survey 

was conducted by the Survey Research Center in April and May, 1983.

The survey focused on retail sellers of merchandise operating in 

lines of business in which honoring credit cards was believed to be common 

practice. Grocery stores, for instance, were excluded from consideration, 

whereas department stores and retailers of apparel, home furnishings, and 

several other product lines were included. In order to concentrate on 

sellers of merchandise, most types of service providers were excluded, even 

though credit card use may be common in some service trades. Airlines and 

hotels, for instance, were not studied. To assure adequate coverage of 

different sizes of business, the population was stratified into five size 

groups for sample selection purposes.

Certain factual information was compiled about each respondent, 

including type of business, dollar volume of sales, and the proportion of 

business transacted by cash, check, and credit card. For respondents 

honoring third-party credit cards, the size of the factoring fee paid to the 

card processor on credit card sales was recorded.

Unweighted averages of the proportions of sales volume transacted 

by cash, check, credit card and "other" means reported by each respondent 

are shown in table 4.5. Retailers are grouped by the types of transactions 

they engage in, and results are shown separately for gasoline stations and 

all other respondents. A further breakdown by size category is provided in 

table 4.6 for acceptors of cash, checks, and third-party cards, for businesses

-47-

other than gas stations.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
48-

A large majority of the businesses interviewed— nearly 80 percent— 

honored third-party credit cards. About one in six of these retailers also 

transacted business through its own proprietary card.-*- Most respondents— 

almost 95 percent— also reported accepting checks to transact sales, although 

many placed significant limitations on check acceptance. About 15 percent 

restricted acceptance of checks to those drawn on local banks, and nearly 

10 percent took checks only from persons known to the retailer.

Reflecting these practices, about three quarters of the respondents 

were categorized as engaging in cash, check, and third-party credit card 

transactions. Among such retailers outside the gasoline category, non-credit 

sales were about equally apportioned between cash and check transactions.

The average proportion of sales on third-party credit cards was 12.5 percent 

for non-gasoline merchants that also issue their own card, and 14.6 percent 

for those without proprietary cards, as shown in table 4.5. Proportions for 

both the smallest and largest businesses (table 4.6) were 2 to 3 percentage 

points below these overall averages. Non-gasoline retailers that issue 

their own credit cards typically transacted 37 percent of sales through the 

store card.

Besides sales transacted through cash, personal check, or credit 

card, retailers also transacted sales by travelers check, layaway plan, 

checks drawn on businesses, and credit transactions in which credit cards 

were not involved, all grouped in tables 4.5 and 4.6 under the heading "other 

means."

1. Only a very few respondents that honored a proprietary card said that they 

did not also honor third-party cards, and all but one of these respondents 

were gasoline stations. However, some gas station operators apparently 

treated a gasoline company credit card as a third-party card whereas others 

treated it as proprietary, partly from failure of the question sequence to 

specify a particular treatment. Thus the distinctions in table 4.5 between 

third-party and store cards are not especially meaningful for gas stations.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-49-

t a b l e 4.5

DISTRIBUTION OF SALES BY MODE OF TRANSACTION

"I Number | Average Proportion of Business Transacted Byj,

I of I Personal Store 3rd-Party Other

I Respondents I Cash______ Checks_____ Card________ Card______ Means

All Respondents

Cash 9 99.8 0 0 0 0.2

Cash, checks 130 39.2 43.3 0 0 17.4

Cash, credit cards^ 19 62.2 0 4.2 30.0 3.4

Cash, checks, store cards 12 42.7 21.9 28.7 0 6.7

Cash, checks, 3rd-party

cards 458 37.8 34.1 0 15.0 13.1

Cash, checks, both cards 71 30.7 20.4 35.7 11.3 2.0

All Respondent s Except Gas Stations

Cash 5 96.0 0 0 0 4.0

Cash, checks 123 37.9 43.9 0 0 18.1

Cash, credit cards^ 11 60.6 0 3.6 31.6 4.1

Cash, checks, store cards 1 22.0 22.0 56.0 0 0

Cash, checks, 3rd-party

cards 422 36.2 35.5 0 14.5 13.7

Cash, checks, both cards 46 25.6 23.0 37.0 12.5 1.9

Gasoline Service Stations

Cash 4 100.0 0 0 0 0

Cash, checks 7 62.6 32.6 0 0 4.9

Cash, credit cards^ 8 64.6 0 5.0 27.9 2.5

Cash, checks, store cards 11 44.5 21.9 26.3 0 7.3

Cash, checks, 3d-party

cards 36 56.1 17.4 0 20.4 6.1

Cash, checks, both cards 25 40.1 15.6 32.9 9.2 2.2

Types of

Transactions

Accepted____

1. Each respondent was asked to provide its proportion of sales by each transaction method.

Arithmetic averages of the responses appear in the table, with no attempt to weight responses

by size of the business. Figures provide a typical response rather than an estimate of the

true proportion of sales industry-wide made through each type of transaction.

2. Credit cards in this category may be store cards, third-party cards, or both.

Note: Rows may not add to 100.0 percent because of rounding and because of slight discrepancies

from 100.0 percent in answers provided by some respondents. Individual cases in which the sum

of the proportions deviated more than slightly from 100.0 percent were eliminated from the

calculations.

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-50-

TABLE 4.6

DISTRIBUTION OF SALES BY MODE OF TRANSACTION

FOR ALL RESPONDENTS EXCEPT GASOLINE STATIONS

BY SIZE OF BUSINESS

Retailers Accepting Cash, Checks, and Third-Party Cards

Annual Volume

of Sales

Number of

Respondents

Average Proportion of Business Transacted By:

Cash Check

3rd-Party

Card

Store

Card

Other

Means

Less than $100 thousand 35 47 .6 40.3 11.0 1.1

$100 - 999 thousand 198 36.9 35.4 14.6 13.1

$1 - 9.99 million 130 28.8 36.0 15.6 19.6

$10 - 99.9 million 37 37.4 35.2 15.2 12.3

$100 million and over 22 54.6 27.9 11.4 6.1

Retailers Accepting Cash, Checks, and Both Credit Cards

Average Proportion of Business Transacted By:

Annual Volume Number of 3rd-Party Store Other

of Sales Respondents Cash Check Card Card Means

Less than $100 thousand 0 _ _ _ _ _

$100 - 999 thousand 9 40.3 22.9 9.6 23.1 4.1

$1 - 9.99 million 10 25.6 19.3 15.6 38.2 1.5

$10 - 99.9 million 12 21.9 24.5 14.9 37.1 1.6

$100 million and over 14 19.6 22.0 9.7 47.5 1.2

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

In questioning merchants about their transactions costs, a principal 

objective was to direct the attention of respondents to all aspects of cost, 

not merely to such explicit or easily ascertainable costs as the merchant 

discount fee. To achieve this objective, inquiries were made regarding three 

separate categories of transaction costs, which were described to respondents 

at the beginning of each series of questions. ' These categories were called 

"point-of-sale and accounting costs," "loss and security costs," and "deposit 

and financial costs." Respondents were also asked to compare total transaction costs— combining these separate categories— among the types of transactions. Certain explicit fees— the merchant discount fee and check guarantee 

service costs— were excluded from the comparisons within each category of 

cost, but included in the comparison of total transactions costs.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-51-

At the same time, it was recognized that many— probably most-- 

retailers would not maintain detailed accounting information suitable for 

quantitative cost comparisons among modes of transactions. But it was also 

anticipated that retailers nevertheless would be familiar with and could 

evaluate aspects of their business that might have important implications for 

their costs of operation. Therefore, respondents were asked to make qualitative cost comparisons rather than dollar-and-cents estimates for the different 

components of transactions cost.

Within each cost category, respondents were asked to make two-way 

comparisons for each possible pair of transaction modes involving cash, check, 

and third-party credit card (and store card, where applicable). Respondents 

were asked to designate whether costs in a particular category for one method 

of transaction were more than, about the same as, or less than the cost of a 

second method of transaction. A summary of the cost comparisons by category 

is presented in table 4.7, with a further breakdown of overall transactions 

costs by size of business presented in table 4.8.

"Point-of-sale" costs were described to the retailers interviewed 

as including "equipment and personnel costs for writing sales slips, making 

change, obtaining verification and approval for checks and credit cards, 

reconciling daily receipts, record keeping, and other point-of-sale costs 

you may have." In this category, a large number of merchants regarded cash 

as the least costly mode of transaction compared with either checks or credit 

cards. Nearly 80 percent said credit cards were more costly than cash. Somewhat more than one half of the respondents regarded credit cards as also more 

costly than checks in the point-of-sale category (table 4.7).

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-52-

TABLE 4.7

QUALITATIVE COMPARISON OF TRANSACTION COSTS FOR CASH, 

CHECK, AND THIRD-PARTY CREDIT CARDS1

I____________ Frequency of Citation As:________

Cost Categories and |_______ ______More Costly____________ | About

Transaction Pairings__________| Cash________ Check________ Card | the Same

(Frequency of response in percent)

Point-of-sale costs

Check vs ,. cash 2 42 ... 56

Card vs. cash 1 ... 79 20

Card vs. check • • « 9 54 37

Security-related costs

Check vs. cash 2 58 40

Card vs. cash 5 ■ • • 40 55

Card vs. check 34 19 47

Deposit and financial costs^

Check vs. cash 1 35 ... 64

Card vs. cash 2 i « • 43 55

Card vs. check 12 25 63

All costs combined-1

Check vs. cash 1 58 ... 41

Card vs. cash 1 p * • 88 11

Card vs. check . . . 13 61 26

1. For respondent engaging in all three modes of transaction.

2. Excludes merchant discount on credit cards and check guarantee fees .

3, Includes merchant discount and check guarantee fees .

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

"Loss and security" costs encompassed "loss or theft of cash, bad 

or returned checks, credit card fraud, bonding and insurance fees, safekeeping 

and other security costs." The category thus included losses suffered by 

retailers from theft or fraud as well as direct expenses to prevent or 

provide compensation against such occurrences. In this category, as in the 

others, cash was regarded as the more expensive means of payment by only a 

small proportion of retailers. Loss and security costs, however, was the 

one category in which credit cards were regarded by the retailers surveyed

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-53-

as less costly than some other means of payment. In comparing third-party 

cards with checks, one-third of the retailers said checks were more costly 

and only one-fifth cited cards as more costly. About one-half said there 

was little or no difference in security-related costs.

"Deposit and financial" costs were described as including "bank 

service charges for deposits, costs to take deposits to a bank, and costs 

associated with the delayed receipt of funds." Check verification fees and 

credit card factoring fees belong in this category, but were excluded from 

the pair-wise comparisons so that attention could be focused on costs aside 

from these explicit fees. Within the category, more than half of the respondents saw little difference in cost for each of the paired comparisons.

Again, very few respondents thought cash was a more costly method.

After comparing transactions methods by category of costs, respondents were asked to consider all elements of cost, including fees for check 

verification and credit card processing. The total cost comparison is shown 

in the bottom tier of table 4.7. In comparing checks with cash, nearly 60 percent of the retailers thought checks were more costly, virtually all the rest 

saw little difference in costs. Credit cards were viewed by 88 percent of the 

retailers as more costly than cash, when all aspects of cost were considered.! 

Credit cards were regarded as more costly than checks by 61 percent of the 

retailers. However, 13 percent thought checks, in total, were more expensive 

than credit cards.

Perceptions of relative transaction costs varied considerably among

different size categories of retailers, as shown in table 4.8, particularly in 1

1. Tabulations not shown in the table indicate that only 2 percentage points 

of that figure were due strictly to merchant discount fees; 86 percent of 

the card-honoring retailers had ranked credit cards as more costly than cash 

in at least one separate category of cost (and not lower than cash in any 

other category).

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-54-

TABLE 4.8

QUALITATIVE COMPARISONS OF TOTAL TRANSACTION COSTS 

BETWEEN SELECTED MEANS OF PAYMENT 

BY SIZE OF BUSINESS

1 Frequency of Citation As :

Types of Transactions 

and Annual Volume of Sales

1

1 Cash

More Costly 

Check Card

| About 

| the Same

Check vs. Cash (Frequency of response in percent)

By size of business

Less than $100 thousand 0 47 53

$100 - 999 thousand 1 50 49

$1 - 9.99 million 2 56 42

$10 - 99.9 million 0 81 19

$100 million and over 3 87 10

Card vs. Cash 

By size of business

Less than $100 thousand 0 • • • 84 16

$100 - 999 thousand 1 • • • 87 12

$1 - 9.99 million 1 « • • 87 12

$10 - 99.9 million 0 • • 88 12

$100 million and over 0 100 0

Card vs. Check 

By size of business

Less than $100 thousand 16 70 14

$100 - 999 thousand 10 63 27

$1 - 9.99 million 12 61 27

$10 - 99.9 million 23 46 32

$100 million and over 28 48 24

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

the comparisons involving checks. In comparing checks with cash, for instance, 

smaller retailers were about evenly divided as to whether checks were more 

costly or about the same cost as cash. But in the two largest size groups,

80 percent or more of the retailers considered checks more costly. Similarly, 

a higher proportion of large retailers than of small retailers regarded checks 

as more costly than credit cards, and the proportion citing credit cards as 

more costly declined steadily as the sales volume category increased.

On the whole, then, retailers showed broad agreement in considering 

credit cards to be a more costly mode of transaction than cash, and a majority

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-55-

believed cards to be more costly than checks as well. In general, checks were 

regarded as more costly than cash, particularly by larger retailers, although 

a large number of respondents saw little difference between them. Within 

categories of cost, retailers clearly felt that credit cards generated the 

highest point-of-sale costs, while checks were more likely to result in 

higher loss and security-related costs than the other methods. Cost differences were seen least frequently for deposit and financial costs.1

Table 4.9 provides statistics on average merchant discount and check 

verification fees paid. As shown on the top line of the table, retailers 

reported paying a 3.1 percent merchant discount fee, on average, and those 

who subscribed to a check verification system paid an average of 3.0 percent 

for that service. The table also provides average fees paid among various 

categories of retailers— by size, type of store, and proportion of sales by 

credit card or check.

The merchant discount fee appears to vary with the size of a business,

measured by annual sales volume. Businesses of less than $100 thousand in sales

reported an average factoring fee of 4.1 percent, while the largest businesses

($100 million and over) paid an average fee of 2.5 percent. Among types of

businesses, those in the department store/general merchandise category paid an

average fee somewhat below the norm, which may in part reflect a high proportion 1

1. Comparative costs are subject to change, of course, particularly as changes 

occur in technology. For instance, card issuers are currently addressing considerable attention to reducing credit card costs by curtailing the unauthorized 

use of cards. Electronic terminals at the point of sale that can access up-todate account information represent one avenue of possible reduction in credit 

card costs. Efforts to enhance the security of card systems include development 

of the "smart" credit card containing a small computer memory chip that can store 

information such as the credit limit for the account, amounts already charged, 

and a personal identification code that must be matched before the card can be 

used. New credit card designs containing holographic images that would be 

difficult and expensive to duplicate are being tested as a possible barrier to 

counterfeit ing.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-56-

of large firms in that category. Groups composed of furniture/appliance

stores, apparel stores, and gasoline stations each paid an average merchant

discount fee that was very close to the overall average, while a large group

of widely varied businesses paid a fee somewhat above average. However, the

proportion of a business's sales transacted by credit card did not appear by

itself to be closely related to the size of the merchant discount fee.

TABLE 4.9

MERCHANT DISCOUNTS ON CREDIT CARDS AND CHECK VERIFICATION FEES

Merchant Discount | Check Verification

!

Categories of I 

Retailers I

Number of 

Respondents

1 Average 

1 fee 

1 (percent)

1 Number of 

1 Respondents

1 Average 

1 fee 

1 (percent)

All Respondents 497 3.1 41 3.0

By Annual Sales

Less than $100 thousand 35 4.1 0 ...

$100 - 999 thousand 225 3.3 8 2.8

$1 - 9.99 million 153 3.1 18 3.2

$10 - 99.9 million 51 2.6 12 2.9

$100 million and over 33 2.5 3 2.5

By Type of Store

Department/Gen'1 Mdse. 37 2.6 5 2.8

Furniture/Appliance 102 2.9 5 2.6

Apparel 68 3.2 8 2.6

Gas Stations 62 3.2 3 4.2

All Other 228 3.4 20 3.1

Proportion of Sales by Card

5 percent or less 168 3.4 . .

5.1 - 10 percent 119 3.0 . .

10.1 - 15 percent 44 2.8 . .

15.1 - 25 percent 75 3.0 . .

More than 25 percent 80 3.1 . .

Proportion of Sales by Check

10 percent or less ... 11 3.0

10.1 - 20 percent • • • 10 2.8

20.1 - 35 percent • • . 11 2.6

35.1 - 50 percent 6 3.5

More than 50 percent 0

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-57-

Considerably fewer observations were available for check verification fees than for merchant discounts, which makes comparisons among size 

groups and types of business rather tenuous for check fees. It appears, for 

instance, that the largest stores may pay smaller check verification fees, 

but only three observations were available in that category.

In addition to the series of questions seeking qualitative cost 

comparisons, retailers were also asked about the typical size of transaction, 

and what they estimated the total transaction cost to be for each method of 

payment accepted. In essence, they were asked to make their best quantitative summary of the cost comparisons previously discussed. Responses were 

expressed as a percentage of the amount of the transaction. For analytical 

purposes, differences between cost estimates were computed for each pair of 

transaction methods; mean and median differences and some distributional 

data are presented in table 4.10.

On average, check transactions were estimated to be 1 percentage 

point more costly than cash transactions, although as many as 10 percent of 

the respondents thought the costs of checks exceeded the costs of cash by 

more than 3 percentage points. Compared with cash, third-party credit card 

transactions averaged 2-1/4 percentage points higher in cost, and nearly 20 

percent of the respondents indicated that the cost of cards exceeded cash by 

more than 4 percentage points. Compared with checks, credit cards were 

about 1-1/2 percentage points more costly.

The quantitative estimates tend to substantiate the qualitative 

comparisons insofar as cash ranks as the least costly method of transaction 

and credit card as the most costly. Yet the average differences in costs 

appear rather small in light of other data collected in the survey. As

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-58-

noted, about four-fifths of the qualitative responses indicated that credit 

cards were more costly than cash even before consideration of merchant discount 

fees, which makes it likely that overall credit card costs would exceed cash 

costs by at least somewhat more than the average size of the merchant discount. 

However, the average estimated difference between credit card and cash costs, 

at 2.19 percentage points, was nearly 1 percentage point less than the average 

merchant discount. While the quantitative cost estimates can hardly be regarded 

as precise, they nevertheless suggest that retailers regard the differences in 

in transaction costs among payment method as relatively small proportions of 

transaction amounts.

TABLE 4.10

QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES OF COST DIFFERENCES

Average Cost Difference in Percentage Points

Type of 

Measure

1

1

1

Check 

Compared 

with Cash

Credit Card 

Compared 

with Cash

Credit Card 

Compared 

with Check

Mean 0.97 2.19 1.42

Median 0 2.00 1.50

I Percentage Distribution of Cost Differences

Cost Difference i 

Categories (in | 

percentage points)|

Check 

Compared 

with Cash

Credit Card 

Compared 

with Cash

Credit Card 

Compared 

with Check

Less than 0 6.4 9.5 13.9

0 44.6 14.4 21.1

0.1 to 1.0 21.1 12.9 13.4

1.1 to 2.0 11.3 16.4 21.1

2.1 to 3.0 6.4 18.4 12.9

3.1 to 4.0 3.4 9.0 6.2

Over 4.0 6.9 19 .4 11.5

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
5 • EFFECT OF CREDIT CARDS ON PRICES OF GOODS AND SERVICES

The Cash Discount Act specifies that the Federal Reserve study 

should address "the effect of charge card usage on the pricing of goods and 

services," and links this inquiry to a comparison of costs among methods of 

payment. This comparison was presented in Chapter 4. If, as indicated there, 

credit card costs are higher than for other types of payment, the primary 

issue becomes: do retailers incorporate the cost of credit into the prices

they charge, so that everyone pays a higher price than would be paid in the 

absence of credit cards?

In addition to this essentially microeconomic question of price 

determination, the possible effects of credit card usage on movements in the 

general level of prices are sometimes discussed in legislative debate. The 

latter issue is really an aspect of a broader question about the macroeconomic 

impact of credit cards, and is best viewed in a comprehensive framework that 

considers jointly the impact of credit cards on the aggregate propensities 

to consume and on the demand for money balances, under various assumptions 

about resource utilization and policy actions.

5.1. Retailer Pricing Behavior: Microeconomic Perspective

A popular maxim is that "there's no such thing as a free lunch." 

According to this dictum, retailers unquestionably recoup their creditrelated costs in the prices they charge for goods or services. The costs 

of doing business must be covered in the long run, since no firm can stay in 

business indefinitely if it is unprofitable. The coverage of credit card 

costs is not simply a matter of retailers calculating that cost and arbitrarily 

distributing it across the prices they charge, with no concern about any possiible repercussions uoon sales volume; rather, the cost of providing credit 

is one of many elements that determine the retail supply curves for particular

-59-

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-60-

products. Prices in the marketplace are a result of both supply and demand 

forces, reflecting all costs, including credit costs, that shape the supply 

curve of retailers, and reflecting as well the incomes, tastes, and other 

factors that determine the demand schedules of consumers.

In the short run, whether a credit cost increase is included in a 

retailer's price becomes a question of that merchant's power to put the price 

of a product or a service at whatever level he chooses. The extent of this 

power is determined largely by the degree to which raising prices to cover 

the cost of credit will decrease the volume of sales. If a retailer's potential customers are not particularly sensitive to price changes, then any 

increase in costs to a retailer— such as in the cost of carrying receivables 

owing to rising interest rates— can be passed through more easily into the 

retail price. If buyers ar° resistant to price increases, then the retailer 

in the short run may have to accept a smaller profit margin when costs rise.

Magnitude of price effect. At the heart of the debate over the 

objectives of the Cash Discount Act is the issue of whether consumers who 

pay cash "subsidize" those who use credit cards, by virtue of the incorporation of credit costs (not offset by finance revenues) into retail prices of 

goods and services. While it seems evident that any added cost associated 

with credit cards would be incorporated in prices, the magnitude of the price 

impact would be a key determinant of the practical significance of the subsidy.

From the discussion in Chapter 4, it appears that there may be some 

costs linked to cash or check transactions that exceed corresponding costs 

for credit card use, but other costs associated with cards that are negligible 

in cash sales. From interviews with retailers and from independent studies, 

it would appear to be not far off the mark to view the purely transactional

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-61-

of credit administration and financing of receivables as a rough approximation of credit card costs. These costs are partially offset by finance 

charge revenues and user fees, with the net difference showing up at the 

retail level as a credit department's operating deficit or as payment of the 

merchant discount fee to a third-party card issuer.

The merchant discount fee and the credit department deficit have 

been expressed in Chapter 4 as percentages of credit sales volume typically 

ranging from 1 to 5 percent, and averaging about 3 percent. From the survey 

of retailers, however, credit sales appear to represent only about 15 percent 

(third-party cards) to 30 percent (store cards) of total sales at stores 

that typically accept credit cards, so that the uncovered portion of credit 

card costs is spread over a total sales base considerably larger than the 

credit sales volume itself. Thus, total sales might be expected to incorporate a premium for credit costs (uncovered bv credit revenues) ranging 

from less than 1/2 percent to perhaps 1-1/4 percent, some part of which would 

still be borne by credit card users in proportion to their 15 to 30 percent 

share of total sales. The implications for two-tier pricing that flow from 

the magnitude of the price effects attributable to credit cards are discussed 

in Chapter 6.

Price determination and credit surcharges. The extent of short-run 

pricing discretion of retailers is particularly relevant to one aspect of 

the debate over discounts for cash and surcharges for credit associated with 

the Cash Discount Act. A central question concerned whether retailers, if 

given the legislative license to add a surcharge for credit, would--or could— 

set the credit price substantially above the cash price without first lowering 

the cash price appreciably. A small surcharge reflective of actual credit 

•. osts would presumably conform with the intent of the Act; but a price hike

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-62-

to credit card buyers far in excess of credit costs would thwart the Act's 

objectives. An expectation of the latter result would rest on either or 

both of two implicit assumptions: (1) that the retailer has the market

power to raise prices without significant loss of sales, or (2) that demand 

for goods and services paid for by credit card is much less elastic than the 

demand of cash buyers.

As discussed above, in a highly competitive situation, any attempt 

by a seller to raise prices above a market-determined level would result in a 

pronounced shift of sales to competitors. Even in a less competitive situation, the seller still faces a demand schedule on which higher prices are 

associated with a smaller quantity demanded; if prices are raised, at least 

some sales are lost. Thus, to hike prices substantially and not suffer a 

decline in total sales revenues, a retailer must face demand that is relatively inelastic, i.e., insensitive to price changes. If this situation 

exists, though, the question arises why goods would not already be priced at 

a profit-maximizing level before enactment of any legislation to permit surcharges for credit. If demand at a given retailer can accommodate a large 

surcharge, it could have supported a boost in the nominal price in any case— 

unless the underlying demand schedules for card users and nonusers differ 

radically.

Only if credit card users are insensitive to price changes whereas 

cash buyers are responsive, would the conditions exist in which a price increase aimed at all customers might reduce sales revenue while a selective 

price increase for card users increased revenue. That is, even if markets are 

not competitive, the market power of retailers is not necessarily enhanced by 

the ability to charge different prices to credit card users, unless the demand 

of such customers is significantly less elastic than that of cash customers.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-63-

However, there appears to be no convincing theoretical argument or empirical 

evidence to suggest that such a dichotomous demand situation exists in fact.

Competition in retailing. From the above discussion, it is clear 

that the degree of competitiveness in retailing can be a key factor governing 

the adjustment of prices to changing credit costs in a one-tier pricing 

system, or the size of the premium that can be included in the credit price 

in a two-tier system. If markets are competitive, then changes in price by 

any seller are constrained by the presence of many other sellers to whom 

potential customers could turn. The textbook case of pure competition 

includes such primary characteristics as a large number of sellers (with 

small shares of the market) and ease of entry for new firms, undifferentiated 

products, and complete information available to buyers. In practice, few 

markets exhibit all of these characteristics, or any one of them in pure 

form, except perhaps markets for some agricultural commodities.

Retailing would appear to be characterized by a large number of 

sellers for any given product, though it is arguable that some sellers might 

be of sufficient dominance in some localities to exercise considerable control 

over price. In most markets, though, the number of retail outlets strongly 

suggests a reasonable approximation to the competitive model.

In addition to multiple sellers in retail markets, similarity of 

merchandise is also observable, even though many forms of product variation 

can be found that permit some degree of price differences. Much effort, in 

fact, goes into differentiating products by quality, styling, or special 

features. In many cases the ambiance, selling policies, or reputation of a 

a store becomes an element of differentiation for any item offered for sale. 

Nevertheless, for most products, the exact same brand will be available 

in competing stores, closely comparable brands will be offered by other

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-64-

competitors, and substitutes clearly distinct in some aspect will be available 

in still other stores.

In such a retailing environment, it becomes difficult to envision 

any merchant successfully tacking on a substantial surcharge above true 

credit costs to his usual price without a significant loss of customers over 

time. A customer taken by surprise might pay such a surcharge once rather 

than leave an intended purchase at the sales counter, but there would seem 

to be little reason for that customer to patronize the store in the future. 

Only stores where little repeat business is anticipated would appear 

potentially able to gain from excessive surcharges.

The above observations on the competitiveness of retailing are 

based for the most part on general impressions. Unfortunately, few rigorous 

studies exist that examine competition in markets that are relevant to this 

report. A rather extensive literature has developed regarding competition 

in the sale of groceries, but since groceries are seldom purchased by credit 

card, the findings of these studies are not directly useful for this report. 

Neither are there published studies available that estimate the elasticity of 

demand separately for credit card buyers as compared with cash buyers.

5.2. Impact of Credit Card Use on Price Movements and Economic Activity

Some observers have argued that credit cards, by enabling their 

holders to spend beyond the limits of their income, are a source of inflationary pressure in the economy.! The concern that credit expansion may 

exacerbate inflation is, of course, not confined to credit cards, although 

interest has often focused upon these instruments.

1. The Credit Control Act of 1969, for instance, which expired in 1981, had 

authorized the President to direct the Federal Reserve "to regulate and 

control any or all extensions of credit....whenever the President determines 

that such action is necessary or appropriate for the purpose of preventing 

or controlling inflation generated by the extension of credit in an excessive 

volume..." This law, as noted earlier, was invoked once during its statutory 

existence, by President Carter in March 1980.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-65-

The demand-side effects of credit cards on price movements are 

best understood as a special case of the broader relationship between credit 

cards and economic activity. In macroeconomic theory, two principal avenues 

exist by which credit card use might affect overall economic activity and 

the price level. If the introduction of credit cards into an economy reduces 

the desired saving rate, it would tend to increase output and aggregate 

income through the stimulative effect of increased consumption (assuming 

some initial slack in resource utilization that would permit expansion of 

output).1

A second route by which credit cards could affect economic activity 

is through their possible impact on the demand for money. As a convenient 

supplementary means of implementing purchases, credit cards might be expected 

to reduce the transactions demand for money for any given level of income and

interest rates. With credit cards available, consumers could carry less 

currency and maintain smaller average checking account balances. The availability of a line of credit, moreover, might also reduce the precautionary 

demand for money. Thus, by enabling a given level of money supply to support 

a larger nominal volume of transactions, which would show up in an increased 

velocity of money, credit cards could contribute to expansion in real economic 

output (given less than full employment initially).

Some qualifications to the foregoing analysis are necessary, however. One qualification concerns the assumption of an initial condition of

1. Further secondary effects would be governed by various elasticities 

present in underlying relationships, and such factors as whether the money 

supply remained fixed as the effects of credit cards emerged. For instance, 

with the rise in consumption, the transactions demand for money balances 

would also tend to rise. Assuming a fixed supply of money, interest rates 

would have to rise in order to hold money demand constant. At higher interest 

rates, some investment spending would be discouraged, limiting the initial 

tendency towards economic expansion induced by credit cards. A full exploration 

of the many possible outcomes that could arise from a card-induced increase in 

consumption is beyond the scope of this report.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-66-

less than full employment. If the economy is operating at a level approaching 

full employment, then the output effects are by definition quite limited.

Any tendency of credit cards to boost the propensity to consume or to induce 

the holding of smaller money balances would mainly result in a bidding up of 

prices.

Second, the foregoing analysis describes what is essentially a shift 

in equilibrium outcomes within an economy. It describes a tendency to shift 

to a higher output level or to a higher level of prices, given some change in 

underlying circumstances, but the analysis does not help to interpret ongoing 

economic processes such as the rates of change in output and prices over time. 

That is, nothing in the foregoing analysis implies any significant long-run 

impacts of credit cards on inflation or economic growth, except insofar as a 

change in the equilibrium saving rate may alter the long-run capital 

intensity of the economy.1

Third, the foregoing analysis assumed a given money supply, whereas

in actuality some adjustments in the money supply might be expected if a

measurable response by the economy to deployment of credit cards were

detected. For credit cards to raise the general level of prices by reducing

the need for transactions balances, the further condition must pertain that

the monetary authorities would fail to recognize the shifting relationships

between the money stock and aggregate spending, and would aim for monetary

growth targets that were too high. If this were the case, the resulting

inflation might be more properly seen as stemming as much from an error in

1. It is true, of course, that the utilization of credit cards has developed 

gradually rather than as a one-time change in economic structure. Thus, a 

series of continual shifts in equilibrium over a number of years could appear 

to be enhancing the process of economic growth or contributing to the process 

of price inflation. It would still need to be recognized that the inflationary 

or growth effects would dissipate as the utilization of credit cards reached 

a limit.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-67-

policy as from credit cards, per se, since the authorities could adjust 

monetary targets to a more appropriate growth path.

The impact of credit cards on the saving rate has already been 

discussed in Chapter 3. Several studies in recent years have examined the 

relationship between credit cards and the demand for money. E. Marcus,1 in 

1960, first examined the potential of credit cards to reduce the necessary 

average level of money balances by enabling a better synchronization of 

payments and receipts. M. Flannery and D. Jaffee, and T. Russell, developed 

models in which the transactions demand for money would be reduced as a result 

of credit card use.2 K. White used cross-sectional data to conclude that 

average balances held per dollar of credit card transactions are considerably 

smaller than balances held for other types of transactions.^ G. Garcia and

S. Miller examined empirically the impact of credit cards on various components of alternative money concepts.^ Both found that the demand for Ml 

is negatively related to a credit card variable, and that demand for time 

deposits and for M2 was also negatively associated with credit cards. In 

general, however, while some economists claim to have detected a statistically 

significant reduction of money demand associated with credit cards, the 

magnitude of the impact has usually been small.

1. Edward Marcus, "The Impact of Credit Cards on Demand Deposit Utilization," 

Southern Economic Journal, vol. 26 (April 1960), pp. 314-16.

2. Mark J. Flannery and Dwight M. Jaffee, The Economic Implications of an

Electronic Monetary Transfer System (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, *34

1973).

3. Kenneth White, "Consumer Choice and Use of Bank Credit Cards: A Model 

and Cross-Section Results," Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 2 (January 

1975), pp. 10-18.

4. Gillian Garcia, "A Note of Bank Credit Cards Impact on Household Money 

Holdings," Journal of Economics and Business, vol. 29 (Winter 1977),

pp. 152-54.; and "Bank Credit Cards, Time Deposits, and M2," Journal of 

Economics and Business, vol. 30 (Spring/Summer 1978), pp, 230-35.

Stephen M. Miller, "The Money Supply Process and Credit Card Use: An Empirical 

Analysis," Eastern Economic Journal, vol. 8 (April 1982), pp. 89-99.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-68-

In summary, it seems clear that some small impact on the level of 

prices can be attributed to the positioning of retailer supply curves to 

reflect credit card costs not borne by card users, but no demand-related or 

other effects are discernible on the levels of output or of prices. All told 

there is little persuasive evidence that credit card use has caused any appre 

ciable alteration in the demand for money, and the impact of credit cards on 

the aggregate saving rate is also apparently quite small.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-69-

6. SEPARATE PRICING OF CREDIT CARD SERVICES AND RETAIL PRODUCTS

The Cash Discount Act of 1981 and its antecedents were designed to 

remove legal impediments to the charging of separate prices for goods sold 

for cash (or check) and for goods sold via credit cards. The fundamental 

objective of the Act was to foster a payments system in which the costs of 

open-end credit were borne by those who use such credit, and not in any way 

by those who do not use it.

Encouragement of a two-tier retail pricing structure was, of course, 

one way to approach the desired allocation of credit costs; an alternative 

way might have been to promote elimination of legal ceilings on consumer 

interest rates and removal of any other barriers that prevent creditors from 

charging the full cost of credit to its users. In this section, two alternative methods for achieving optimal allocation of credit card costs will be 

examined: (1) removing the barriers to recovery of credit costs through

finance charges and user fees, and (2) establishing a two-tier retail pricing 

system through (a) discounts for the use of cash or (b) surcharges for the 

use of credit.

6.1. Cost Recovery Through Financing Revenues

Maximum interest rates that may be charged on consumer credit are 

regulated by individual states, generally through complex sets of laws that 

deal separately with different types of credit or different classes of 

creditors. Most laws governing consumer interest rates were enacted many 

years ago to create exceptions to statutory or constitutional provisions 

that had set a maximum "legal rate of interest," a rate generally recognized 

as much too low to make feasible the extension of relatively small consumer 

loans. With some notable exceptions, the special rate ceilings established

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-70-

for consumer lending originally were set sufficiently high to avoid significant restraint on the volume of credit. Typically, 1-1/2 percent per month 

(18 percent annually) has been the maximum interest rate on credit card 

lending. In several states, that rate has applied on balances up to certain 

amounts, such as the first $500, with a lower rate applicable to amounts 

owed above the threshold level. A few states maintained maximums as low as 

1 percent per month, and a few set ceilings as high as 1-3/4 percent.

Meanwhile, with the substantial rise in interest rates from the 

mid- to late-1970s, the cost of carrying credit card receivables increased 

considerably. Given the inflexible statutory ceilings on credit card 

interest rates, the rise in financing costs meant that earnings from such 

lending deteriorated. For bank issuers of credit cards, this declining 

profitability is evident in figures from annual Federal Reserve System 

surveys on costs associated with various banking functions, reported in the 

Functional Cost Analysis.^- Table 6.1 reproduces from this report selected *12

data on credit card costs for recent years, with banks grouped into three 

deposit-size classifications. While the actual cost of funds may differ 

from one institution to another, it is clear that on average the cost of 

funds was the major factor in the shift from positive to negative profitability on bank credit card operations between 1977 and 1981.2

The shrinking profitability of credit cards in the late 1970s 

provoked a number of responses among creditors and state legislatures. With 

rate increases impeded by state law and many card users escaping interest 

charges by paying monthly bills in full, the imposition by creditors of

1. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Functional Cost Analysis (Federal Reserve 

Bank of Boston, annual editions).

2. Comprehensive statistics for retail firms operating their own card plans are 

not available for a similar time period, but retailers are subject to the same 

general money and capital market forces as other suppliers of consumer credit.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-71-

"membership" fees unrelated to account activity was becoming increasingly 

common in 1979. It then spread rapidly in 1980 when federal credit controls 

created an additional incentive to raise the price of consumer credit.^

Such user fees were illegal in certain states, but in some cases the legislatures revised their statutes to permit these non-interest assessments. By 

the late 1970s, lawmakers had also begun to raise or remove the restrictive 

interest rate ceilings as well.^ In some cases, state legislatures were 

prodded into action by the fact or likelihood of banks moving their credit 

card operating arms to other states considered to have a more accommodating 

environment for such business.

In all, between the end of 1978 and the close of 1981, 32 states 

revised their laws governing interest rates on revolving credit accounts.

At the end of 1978, five states had ceilings below 1-1/2 percent for the 

entire balance and 20 more states had ceilings below 1-1/2 percent applicable 

to a part of the balance. By the end of 1981, just one state constrained 

rates to below 1-1/2 percent on any amount owed, and only nine states 

maintained a limit below that level on some part of the balance.^

1. For certain types of credit, particularly "open-end" credit, creditors were 

required under the controls program to post a special non-interest-bearing 

deposit with the Federal Reserve for any increase in credit outstanding above 

a specified "base" amount.

2. Ohio, for example, has revised its consumer lending statutes twice since 

1979. Effective in March of 1980, it brought allowable interest rates on 

revolving credit up to 1-1/2 percent per month from a previous graduated 

ceiling capped at 1 percent on balances over $400. Then in early 1982 it 

authorized creditors to charge whatever rate were established by contract 

with the borrower, not to exceed 25 percent per year. Several other states, 

including New Jersey and New York, now likewise limit finance charges to the 

rate "set by contract." Washington and Minnesota, two states which formerly 

capped credit card interest rates at 1 percent per month, have revised their 

laws. In Minnesota, customers now have the option of paying a 1 percent 

monthly finance charge plus an annual fee (maximum of $15), or a finance 

rate of 1-1/2 percent per month with no fee permitted. In Washington, the 

ceiling was raised to 1-1/2 percent per month in 1981, and Washington voters 

subsequently rejected an initiative item that would have restored the 

pre-1981 1 percent limit.

3. Charles H. Gushee, ed., The Cost of Personal Borrowing in the United

States (Boston: Financial Publishing Company, 1979, 1982).

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-72-

TABLE 6.1

NET EARNINGS ON CREDIT CARD PLANS AT COMMERCIAL BANKS 

FOR SELECTED YEARS BY DEPOSIT SIZE CATEGORIES

1 Earnings and Costs as Percent of Receivables

Bank Categories by Deposit Size | 1977 | 1979 1 1980 1 1981

Less than $50 million

Net earnings before cost of money 4.63 3.89 4.70 4.96

Cost of money 4.97 5.80 6.90 8.49

Net earnings after cost of money -.33 -1.91 -2.20 -3.53

$50 - $200 million

Net earnings before cost of money 6.40 6.42 6.85 7.98

Cost of money 4.77 6.10 7.12 9.05

Net earnings after cost of money 1.62 -.32 -0.27 -1.07

More than $200 million

Net earnings before cost of money 7.95 8.32 6.17 10.86

Cost of money 4.63 6.52 7.95 9.53

Net earnings after cost of money 3.32 1.80 -1.78 1.33

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Functional Cost Analysis, 1978, 1980,

1981, 1982.

While rate ceilings have been perhaps the principal barrier to fully 

recovering the cost of credit directly from credit users,1 other factors such 

as the customary interest-free "grace period" on accounts paid in full may 

also affect a creditor's ability to cover costs. The costliness of any grace

1. In 1968, G. Lynch found that prices paid on selected appliances in Little 

Rock, Arkansas (where finance rates were subject to a constitutional ceiling 

of 10 percent) were from 3 to 7 percent higher than prices paid in cities 

located in less restrictive states. The National Commission on Consumer 

Finance concluded that: "Regardless of the costs of providing any form of

sales credit, a reduction by legislative fiat of the permitted gross income 

from finance charges necessitates adjustments in goods prices, fees, or 

availability. If not, lowered profits will force some retailers— probably 

small ones— out of business. While credit sellers may recover part of their 

lost income by reducing other services or adding fees for services previously 

furnished without charge, the most likely offset is an increase in cash prices 

resulting in a subsidy of credit by cash purchasers. (See: Gene C. Lynch,

"Consumer Credit at Ten Per Cent Simple: The Arkansas Case," University of

Illinois Law Review (1968), pp. 592-601, and National Commission, Consumer 

Credit in the United States, p. 107.)

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-73-

period, of course, would vary with the cost of funds involved in financing 

receivables.1

The assessment of user fees and a moderate boosting of finance 

rates since around 1980 have been gradually shifting more of the cost of 

credit card operations onto the users of credit cards. Some card issuers 

have also acted to circumscribe the grace period by charging interest from 

the date of billing to the date of payment on accounts paid in full, or by 

charging a monthly "maintenance fee" on such accounts. These developments 

may be reducing the need to cover credit costs through merchant discount fees^ 

or through higher prices charged for goods and services. The survey of 

retailers summarized in Chapter 4 suggests that merchant discounts indeed may 

have been pared down on average in recent years. The average fee reported 

there of 3 percent (unweighted in any way for size of firm) and the proportion 

of respondents paying a 5 percent fee are both lower than corresponding

1. At least one economist, however, has concluded that "the impact of the 

so-called 'free ride' is probably substantially less than often suggested." 

From an examination of account records at a large retail chain in 1973, E. R. 

McAlister found that the 26 percent of active account holders who paid no 

finance charge during a 12-month period represented a much smaller share

(4 percent) of total balances outstanding. (See E. Ray McAlister, with 

Edward DeSpain, An Empirical Analysis of Retail Revolving Credit (West 

Lafayette, Ind.: Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University,

1975), pp. 47-48.) But McAlister, in turn, may have understated the magnitude 

of the "free ride." For one thing, the 49 percent who paid a finance charge 

"some of the time" also obtained a "free ride" on occasion, perhaps frequently, 

but McAlister did not report in detail on experience with these credit users. 

The significant rise in the costs of financing receivables since 1973 would 

also serve to temper McAlister's dismissal of the grace period's importance 

in the overall credit cost structure.

2. A study of four states having widely different rate ceilings found that

the average merchant discount fee in a low-ceiling state (Arkansas) was considerably higher than in a high-ceiling state (Illinois). See Robert W. 

Johnson, Retailers: CRC 1979 Creditor Survey (West Lafayette, Ind.:

Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, 1980). For a 

similar finding comparing merchant discounts in California and Washington 

State, see G. G. Gordon and others, The Impact of a Consumer Credit Interest 

Limitation Law (Seattle: University of Washington, 1970), p. 19.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-74-

measures generally believed to prevail a few years ago.^ Legal barriers in 

several states still limit recourse to some or all of the methods for covering 

credit card costs discussed here, but certainly to a lesser extent than a few 

years ago. Continued state legislative action on this front could in time 

relegate the approach of the Cash Discount Act to a secondary role.2

6.2. Two-tier Pricing Structure

If the costs of credit are not fully met by financing revenues, they 

could theoretically be recovered from users of credit by charging them an 

appropriately higher price than paid by cash buyers. That is, any particular 

item could carry two prices, a cash price and a higher credit price.3 This 

is the approach encouraged by the Cash Discount Act. As noted earlier, the 

Act also makes a further distinction between discounts for cash and surcharges 

for credit. A two-tier price structure established through discounts for 

cash is favored by the Act; two-tier pricing arrived at through a surcharge 

for credit is effectively barred.

The distinction between surcharges and discounts has little apparent 

foundation in economic theory. Economically speaking, the two are functional 

equivalents; in a two-tier system tied to the cost of credit, there are simply 

two separate prices, with the difference between them representing credit

1. Comparable survey data are not available for earlier periods, but personnel 

at a major card interchange system confirm that merchant discount fees have 

generally dropped in the past three to five years.

2. The effective removal of artifical barriers to finance rates and other 

fees would result in the determination of direct charges to credit users and 

factoring fees to retailers by market forces. The "merchant discount" would 

not necessarily be eliminated entirely, but would be established in a more 

fully competitive environment.

3. In fact, several price tiers would be allowable under the Act, apparently 

as long as the credit price— the "regular" price— occupied the highest tier. 

Given that the costs of checks for many retailers are less than for credit 

cards and more than for cash, some merchants might wish to adopt a three-tier 

pricing system. Discounts for cash could also vary by the size of the transaction or by the type of merchandise purchased. Three-tier and other possible 

pricing structures are not discussed in detail in this report.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-75-

costs not offset by financing revenues. Whether that difference is called a 

"surcharge" in reference to the lower price or a "discount" in reference to 

the higher price should not matter. Nevertheless, there may exist some 

practical considerations that warrant a legal distinction between surcharges 

and discounts.

From one viewpoint, it might appear obvious that surcharges and 

discounts would result in different pairs of prices. After all, if an item 

regularly sells for $20, a $1 discount for cash establishes a $20/$19 price 

structure, while a $1 surcharge for credit creates a. $21/$20 price structure. 

The root problem with this view is the implicit assumption of a fixed, identifiable, "regular price" from which all adjustments would be made. In fact, 

of course, prices at the retail level may be altered repeatedly. Merchandise 

already labeled with a single price of $20 (for example) could be first 

repriced to $21, then offered on a discount-for-cash basis at some later 

point. Banning surcharges would not prevent establishment of a $21/$20 

price structure, at least in the long run. For seasonal merchandise, such as 

clothing, the notion of an identifiable regular price is even more elusive— 

old stock is periodically removed and new items are offered for sale with 

freshly tagged prices. For a newly stocked item with a price tag of, say,

$39 credit/$37 cash, no original one-tier regular price could be identified. 

Perhaps the item would have been priced at $38 under a single-price system; 

in fact, there is no way to tell.

Another way to view this issue is to ask why a merchant charging 

all customers $20 for a certain item would willingly reduce the price to $19 

for some segment of his customers. If he could get $20, why would he charge 

$19? One possibility is that, by tying the discount to payment by cash, the 

merchant might hope to stimulate a shift from credit card use to cash that

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-76-

would reduce his credit costs, thereby "paying for" the selective price 

reduction. The success of such a policy would require that the initial 

proportion of sales on credit cards be high and that a substantial switch 

from credit to cash occur in response to the offered discount (or that the 

cost of providing credit be very high).

For instance, if only 20 percent of sales are on credit prior to 

the discount, then any merchant choosing to discount from his "old" regular 

price would be reducing the price to the 80 percent of his clientele who 

already use cash (and pay his regular price) as well as to the much smaller 

target group of credit users who can be persuaded to switch to cash. If 

even half of those who normally use credit shift to cash (10 percent of the 

total clientele in this example), the cost of credit would have to be 

8 times larger than any discount from the regular price if net profits are 

to be undisturbed. Based on the likely relationship between the costs of 

cash and the costs of credit discussed in earlier sections, the merchant in 

this situation almost certainly would have to raise his regular price before 

applying a discount in order to avoid a reduction in profits.^

But the offer of a discount might increase sales, it could also be

argued, which could provide an additional offset to credit costs. This

possibility requires careful analysis, however. The wholesale cost to the

retailer of additional merchandise would have to be covered, as well as the

reduced profit margins on items that could have been sold at the higher price,

and any other increase in selling costs associated with higher volume. These

requirements suggest the necessity that the merchant face a highly elastic

1. A more detailed example of how prices in a two-tier system might compare 

with the price in a single-price system is presented in Appendix C. The 

hypothetical example, for a gasoline service station that switches to a 

discount-for-cash system, utilizes some survey data on consumer reactions to 

gasoline discounts discussed below in Chapter 6, section 3.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-77-

demand curve. From the point of view of a single merchant who offers a 

discount (while most competitors do not), the sales increase argument seems 

to depend on competitors observing a loss of customers without retaliating 

through their own pricing strategies. If compensating actions of competitors 

are assumed, so that a sales increase for a typical merchant would have to 

represent "new" business not attracted from competitors— then the sales gain 

argument requires that industry-wide demand for the product be highly elastic; 

that is, that a reduction in price stimulates enough additional sales to 

increase total revenues by more than the cost of additional merchandise. But 

if this demand configuration exists, it generates a motivation— completely 

apart from the discount issue— to lower the price and reap additional sales.

It then becomes necessary to explain why retailers would operate at an inferior 

pricing position prior to the time that discounts for cash became an option.

Perhaps the most straightforward argument for making a distinction 

between a surcharge and a discount— an argument that was employed in Senate 

floor discussions— is that to allow both approaches to two-tier pricing 

could breed unnecessary and detrimental confusion among consumers. If only 

discounts are allowed from the posted price, potential purchasers would always 

know that they would be charged no higher than the posted price; if surcharges 

are allowed as well, customers would be less sure whether the posted price is 

the higher credit price or the lower cash price. If advertising or in-store 

displays fail to make a surcharge policy clear, credit card customers may be 

attracted by a low advertised cash price and wind up paying an unexpectedly 

higher credit price.

The force of the above argument depends in part upon the degree of 

competitiveness in the marketplace, as noted in Chapter 5. In the long run, 

if retailing is competitive, stores that mislead customers about surcharge

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-78-

practices stand to lose customers to more forthright competitors. Consumers 

might be caught unaware by a surcharge in some instances, but would be unlikely 

to be "stung" repeatedly.^ Experience would lead consumers to avoid future 

visits to stores with poorly publicized surcharge policies, to come prepared 

to pay cash, or at least to shop with the knowledge that the credit price at 

certain stores is higher than the tagged price. Similarly, competition would 

tend to minimize the size of any surcharge, presumably to the approximate 

cost of uncovered credit costs.

6.3. Buyer and Seller Attitudes to Discounts

The first sections of this Chapter discussed the possible implementation of discount-for-cash plans primarily from a theoretical standpoint. 

Earlier sections addressed the cost conditions and card use habits that would 

affect the feasibility of two-tier pricing. But whatever the feasibility, 

the questions remain whether retailers operating in the marketplace would 

find two-tier pricing an attractive alternative, and to what extent consumers 

would respond to discounts for cash by switching from credit cards to cash.

Recent surveys provide some indication of consumer reaction to 

discounts for cash. The Federal Reserve has sponsored two surveys, one concerning gasoline purchases and the other dealing with likely responses to 

offers of discounts in various hypothetical situations. A pair of independent 

researchers has also obtained consumer responses to hypothetical discount 

offers, which they have integrated into a mathematical model for determination 

of an optimal size of discount.

Survey of gasoline purchases. By early 1983, gasoline purchase

was the one area of retailing in which price discounts for cash payment were

1. Stores that do not depend upon repeat business, of course, would be better 

positioned to maintain a policy of high but poorly communicated surcharges.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-79-

offered to consumers on a widespread basis. The major gasoline refining 

and marketing companies, rather than local dealers, have been the principal 

proponents of two-tier pricing for gas. Faced from the mid-1970s until 

lately with steady increases in the cost of funds necessary to carry consumer 

receivables, the gasoline companies have sought various means to dissuade 

customers from using credit cards. Some companies had experimented with 

two-tier pricing in selected localities for several years, but it was not 

until the summer of 1982 that discounts for cash were made widely available. 

To document consumer reaction to these discounts, a survey of households 

about their gasoline buying behavior was conducted for the Federal Reserve 

by the Survey Research Center in January 1983.

In that survey, 52 percent of the almost 700 respondents possessed 

either a bank credit card, a gasoline company credit card, or a general 

purpose credit card (or combination of such cards). Just over half of these 

cardholders, however, reported that they "never" used credit cards to buy 

gasoline. By contrast, slightly more than 20 percent said they "always" 

used a credit card to buy gas. The remainder designated a frequency of 

credit card purchase ranging from one-fourth to three-fourths of the time. 

Respondents who held gasoline company cards— about 30 percent of the full 

sample— were also asked whether they used gasoline cards on a weekly, a 

monthly, or a lesser frequency. Nearly one-half of that subgroup said they 

used gasoline cards weekly, about 10 percent said they did not use the cards 

at all.

Respondents who held a bank, gasoline, or general purpose credit 

card were questioned further about their experience with discounts for cash. 

Results of some of these questions are presented in table 6.2. By January 

1983, 60 percent of these respondents, at least once in the past year, had

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-80-

been to a gasoline station that offered a discount for cash. Those thereby 

exposed to discounts were asked how they had paid for their purchase of gas 

on the most recent occasion that a discount had been available. About threequarters of those answering the question had paid by cash. Since somewhat 

more than 60 percent of card holders had reported generally using cash,l 

it appears that the offer of a discount for cash generated a modest increase 

in the proportion of customers paying cash.

Certain characteristics of those who pay cash and those who use 

credit cards when offered discounts can be observed. When respondents are 

classified either as frequent credit card users or as frequent cash users, it 

can be seen, as might be expected, that virtually all of those who paid by 

credit card when offered a discount for cash were classified as frequent 

users of credit cards. Table 6.2 also shows that of 78 respondents classified as frequent users of credit cards,2 59 percent had used their credit 

card to buy gas the last time that a discount was offered, and 41 percent 

had paid with cash. Roughly speaking, then, about 40 percent of the target 

population surveyed (those who often use credit cards) used cash when offered 

a discount. Some of these, of course, might have used cash anyway, reducing 

the number of consumers that can be regarded as having altered their means of 

payment in response to the discount for cash.

To further investigate responses to discounts, respondents who had 

paid cash on the most recent offer of a discount were asked how they would

1. Those "generally using" cash included the approximate one-half of card 

holders that "never" used a credit card to buy gasoline, and some others— 

about 10 percent of the sample— who sometimes used a card but more frequently 

used cash.

2. Eighty-five respondents were identified as frequent card users, but 7 did 

not answer the question about their most recent purchase when a discount was 

available.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-81-

TABLE 6.2

USE OF CREDIT CARDS 

AND EXPOSURE

OR CASH IN 

TO DISCOUNT

PAYMENT 

FOR CASH

FOR GAS

T All 1[ Use Card1 I Use Cashz

I Card Holders Frequently 1 Frequently

1Number Percent ! Number Percent 1 Number Percent

1. Card holding respondents^ 354 100 129 100 220 100

a. Not offered discount^ 143 40 44 34 94 43

b. Were offered discounts^ 211 60 85 66 126 57

2. Respondents offered discount^ 199 100 78 100 121 100

a. Paid by credit card^ 49 25 46 59 3 2

b. Paid by cash^ 150 75 32 41 118 98

3. Respondents paying cash when 147 100 32 100 115 100

offered discount^

a. Would have used cash^ 124 84 20 63 104 90

b. Would have used card^ 23 16 12 37 11 10

1. Use a credit card for one-half or more of gasoline purchases, or for one-fourth of 

purchases if gasoline card usage is weekly.

2. Use a credit card for one-fourth or less of purchases, and gasoline card usage is 

less than weekly.

3. Holders of bank, gasoline company, or general purpose credit cards. Those who hold 

only retail store credit cards are excluded.

4. Respondents were asked if on any occasion in the past year they had been offered a 

discount to pay cash for gasoline. Respondents on line 2 are fewer than on line 

l.b. because some respondents did not provide answers for 2.a. and 2.b.

5. Those exposed to a discount at least once in past year were asked how they paid 

for gas on the most recent occasion that they were offered a discount. Respondents 

on line 3 are fewer than on line 2.b. because some respondents did not provide 

answers for 3.a. and 3.b.

6. Respondents who paid cash when offered a discount were asked how they

would have paid for the gasoline purchase in the absence of a discount offer.

Responses from household survey, 1983.

have paid for the gas in the absence of a discount. Eighty-four percent said 

they would have paid cash anyway. Twenty-three respondents (16 percent) said 

they would have used a credit card. Looking only at the 32 frequent card 

users who paid cash when offered a discount, 20 said they would have paid

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-82-

cash in the absence of a discount, and only 12 said they would have used a 

credit card. Thus, based on responses to this hypothetical question, the 

proportion of people who would actually alter their intended means of payment 

when offered a discount may be considerably smaller than the 40 percent suggested by a simple breakdown of frequent card users into categories of 

cash payment and credit payment. Of 78 frequent card users in the survey,

32 used cash, but for only 12 of these did use of cash actually represent a 

change in how they would have paid for the specific purchase in question.

Some of these results can be used to construct a hypothetical 

example of gasoline pricing before and after adoption of a discount for cash 

program. The example illustrates the argument advanced earlier that when a 

relatively large number of consumers use cash initially and/or when a relatively small number shift from card to cash when offered a discount, a seller 

must raise the "regular" price before applying the discount if a given level 

of profitability is to be maintained. The details of this example are given 

in Appendix C.

Survey of hypothetical reactions to discounts. In another monthly 

SRC survey, in October 1982, consumer reactions to discounts for cash on 

purchases of furniture and appliances and clothing were probed through a 

series of questions about certain hypothetical situations. Respondents 

identified as possessing at least one type of credit card among bank, store, 

and "general purpose" cards were asked to what extent they used a credit 

card to transact purchases in the durable goods and clothing categories. 

Choices were: "never, one-fourth of the time, about half, three-fourths, or 

all of the time." Dollar amounts of purchase were not specified, but it 

seems likely that furniture and appliance purchases would represent a fairly 

large dollar amount, while clothing would cover a broader range.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-83-

Respondents who said that they used a credit card some or all of 

the time (all responses other than "never” ) were then asked what they thought 

their card use would be if a discount of 3 percent were offered for paying 

by cash or check. Respondents who still indicated they would use a credit 

card at least some of the time were then asked about their reaction to a 

5 percent discount; this procedure was repeated for discounts of 7 and 9 percent. There are obvious reservations that attach to this line of questioning. 

Aside from possible variance between hypothetical and actual reactions to a 

situation, the progressive nature of the questions risked inviting a response 

that credit cards would not be used if discounts were available. Nevertheless, it was believed that responses to such questions would provide a rough 

approximation of consumer sensitivity to discounts for cash.

Results for durable goods purchases are shown in table 6.3. The 

top panel presents responses relative to the number of card holders in the 

survey— around two-thirds of the panel. Among card-holding respondents,

48 percent said they never used credit cards to purchase furniture or appliances; 1 52 percent would sometimes use a credit card, including 12 percent 

who said they used credit cards all of the time. If a discount of 3 percent 

were to be offered, the proportion of those who would sometimes use a credit 

card drops 20 percentage points to 31 percent of the card holders. As shown, 

each further increment in the hypothetical discount diverts additional respondents away from card use, but the largest shift occurs between no discount 

at all and the 3 percent level. At the highest level of discount discussed,

1. Those who never use credit cards, of course, might use other forms of 

credit to finance such purchases, including cash loans from banks, credit 

unions or other institutions. The proceeds of such loans would finance 

a "cash" transaction at the retail store.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-84-

15 percent of the card-holding respondents would use a card at least part 

of the time, and 2 percent would still use one all of the time.

The bottom part of table 6.3 incorporates respondents who do not 

have credit cards into the analysis. When they are added into the "never 

use card" column, an estimated 66 percent of all respondents would purchase 

durables without using credit cards, even when no discount for cash were 

offered.^ At a 3 percent discount for cash, 80 percent would entirely dispense with credit cards, and at the highest discount considered— 9 percent— 

90 percent would never use a credit card.

Respondents indicated a more frequent use of credit cards for 

clothing than for durable goods purchases. In the initial "no discount" 

situtation, 30 percent said they would never use a card to buy clothing. At 

a 3 percent discount, 53 percent would never use a card. At the highest 

discount considered, 81 percent would cease using a credit card entirely.

The comparison between durables and clothing as to non-use of cards is shown 

in table 6.4.

Although a measurable shift from credit to cash appears likely, the 

survey results, especially for durables, suggest that a discount-for-cash 

program might be of limited cost effectiveness. It appears that the offer of 

a 3 percent discount may persuade 20 percent of the card-holding customer 

base to switch from credit to cash, thus generating savings on credit costs. 

But from 30 to 50 percent of the customer base that would pay cash anyway 

would have to be given the same discount given to the "switchers," strongly 

suggesting that the "credit price" in any two-tier system would have to be 

above the regular price in a one-price system.

1. This estimate is likely biased upward to some extent in that the group 

of respondents that have no credit cards may include some persons who buy 

few or no consumer durable goods.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-85-

TABLE 6.3

USE OF CREDIT CARDS FOR PURCHASES OF FURNITURE AND APPLIANCES 

AT VARIOUS LEVELS OF DISCOUNT FOR CASH

Responses as Percentage of Number of Card Holders

Discount

(Percent)

Would Use Card || Proportion of Time Would Use Card

Never Sometime || None | 1/4 1/2 3/4 All

0 48

1

52 |

1

| 48 22 12 6 12

3 69 31 1| 69 16 8 2 5

5 75 25 |1 75 12 7 2 4

7 82 18 || 82 9 5 2 3

9 85 15 1

!

1 85

1

9 3 1 2

Responses as Percentage of All Respondents

Discount

(Percent)

| Would Use Card 1 I Proportion of Time Would Use Card

! Never Sometime 1 1 None 1 1/4 1 1/2 | 3/4 | All

0 66 34

1 1

1 1 66 15 8 4 8

3 80 20 1 1 80 10 6 1 3

5 84 16 1! 84 8 4 2 3

7 88 12 11 88 6 3 1 2

9 90 10 1 1 90 6 2 1 1

Responses from household survey, 1982.

TABLE 6.4

PROPORTION OF CREDIT CARD HOLDERS 

THAT WOULD "NEVER" USE CARD

Discount 

(percent)

1 Type of Purchase

| Durables I Clothing

0 48 30

3 69 53

5 75 64

7 82 74

9 85 81

Responses from household survey, 1982.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-86-

Independent study of feasible discounts. In a 1982 journal article, 

C. Ingene and M. Levy! set out the conditions under which a discount for 

cash can be advantageous to retailers and their customers, and used results 

from a consumer survey on credit buying habits and attitudes toward discounts 

to assess the feasibility of discount plans.

The authors began by presenting an equation for the "present value" 

of the sales of a retail merchant. The equation included terras for the proportions of sales on cash and third-party credit cards, respectively, as well 

as the proportion of the sales price retained on cash sales (which varies 

with the size of any discount for cash), and the proportion of the price 

retained on credit card sales (which depends upon the factoring fee paid to 

the card issuer and upon the number of days between the sale and the collection of funds from the card issuer). Given some cost of credit, the authors 

observed that the optimal discount for cash depends upon the proportion of 

credit customers that can be converted from credit to cash at various sized 

discounts.^ All calculations were based on the assumption of an unchanged 

regular price that becomes the credit price when discounts are introduced.

To make an empirical estimate of the extent to which discounts for 

cash might induce customers to pay cash rather than use a credit card, Ingene 

and Levy conducted a random telephone sample of 248 respondents in a major 

southwestern metropolitan area. The questions presented hypothetical

1. Charles A. Ingene and Michael Levy, "Cash Discounts to Retail Customers:

An Alternative to Credit Card Sales," Journal of Marketing, vol. 46 (Spring 

1982), pp. 92-103.

2. This formulation ignores the possibility that a store offering a cash 

discount might attract additional customers. This outcome is excluded on 

the grounds that, in equilibrium, competitive conditions would result in 

other retailers offering similar discounts, negating the incentive for prospective customers to switch stores to obtain discounts.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
87-

situations in which consumers were asked to report their intended purchase 

behavior. As the authors described the survey, "respondents were asked, for 

example, if they would use a credit card or cash (or check) for a typical 

$100 purchase. If they indicated they would use a card, then the interviewer 

asked if they would prefer to use their card on a $100 item or pay $97 in 

cash or check; that is, would they accept a 3% discount. If they chose to 

use their card, they were asked if they would still use their card in lieu of 

$96 in cash, a 4% discount."1 This iterative questioning procedure continued 

until the respondent indicated a preference for paying cash, or until a 

7 percent discount level was reached. Part of the sample was asked questions 

regarding a $100 purchase, and another part was asked about a hypothetical 

$25 purchase. These questions, while quite similar to the Federal Reserve 

questions discussed earlier, differ from them in some respects. For instance, 

they concern purchases of a specified dollar amount rather than of particular 

types of products.

For the case of a $100 purchase, only 12 percent of the respondents 

indicated that they would typically not use a credit card; almost 90 percent 

would use a card.^ In response to questions about discounts, only 8 percent 

said they would not switch from credit to cash for a 7 percent discount.

Taking account of those that would have used cash without any discount and 

those who would stick with credit cards despite cash discounts, it appeared 

that 80 percent would switch from credit to cash for a discount of somewhere 

between 2-1/2 and 7 percent. At a discount of 3 percent, 50 percent of the 

sample thought that they would use cash for a $100 purchase— the 12 percent

1. Ibid., p. 96.

2. This proportion of credit users is far higher than indicated in the 

Federal Reserve surveys, which may be partly due to the specification of 

a dollar amount of purchase in the Ingene-Levy study.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-88-

who would always use cash and 38 percent who would switch to cash for a 

discount of 3 percent.

When another set of respondents was asked about a $25 purchase,

34 percent indicated they normally would use cash (or check). All but 4 percent of the panel would pay with cash at some level of discount. Assuming 

that the propensities uncovered in these surveys truly reflected conditions 

faced by a typical retailer, the authors calculated that the optimal discount 

for purchases in the $100 range would be about 3 percent, but that for $25 

purchases optimal results would be achieved with no discount at all.

The statistical summary of the findings for a $100 purchase is 

presented in table 6.5, reproduced from the Ingene and Levy article. In 

order r ■> calculate the present value of sales, it was necessary to determine 

or assume the costs associated with cash and credit. The authors assumed 

that a retailer would pay a factoring fee of 5 percent to the card processor. 

They also assumed a six-day lag between a credit card sale and collection 

from the card processor, and used an interest rate of .05 percent per day to 

figure the present value of such receipts. The only explicit cost of cash 

was the hypothetical discount, which varied from zero to 7 percent.

As the discount for cash increased, the present value of cash 

sales would be diminished by the rising discount, offset to varying degrees 

by the cost saving on factoring fees no longer required for sales diverted 

from credit cards. The table shows, for progressive levels of discount, the 

proportion of people that would pay cash, and the calculated present value 

of sales. For the $100 case, peak profitability is reached at a 3 percent 

discount. The value of sales at a 4 percent discount sLill exceeds that at 

the no-discount level by a small margin. At higher discounts, the incremental 

number of switchers is relatively small, resulting in little additional

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-89-

reduction in credit-related costs, but a widening decline in revenues because 

all cash customers must be given the higher discount.

TABLE 6.5

DISCOUNTED PRESENT VALUES FOR DISCOUNTS THAT 

CONSUMERS REQUIRE TO PAY CASH RATHER THAN 

USE CREDIT CARDS ON $100 PURCHASES

Discount

Cumulat ive 

Proport ion 

Paying Cash

Discounted 

Present 

Value as a 

Percent 

of Sales*

0 .1176 95.34

2-1/2 .2745 95.48

3 .5000 95.86

3-1/2 .5784 95.75

4 .5980 95.45

4-1/2 .7157 95.27

5 .8235 94.95

5-1/2 .8627 94.53

6 .8824 94.13

6-1/2 .9020 93.62

*Assuming a factoring fee of 5%, a daily interest rate 

of .05% and a six-day lag between sales and collection 

from the factor.

Source: Ingene and Levy, "Cash Discounts to Retail

Customers," table 1, p. 97.

A crucial determinant of these results is the linkage between 

the optimal discount and the size of the factoring fee. The authors, as 

noted, assumed a 5 percent factoring fee in their calculations, but a fee 

of around 3 percent may now be more nearly typical, even for smaller 

retailers, according to the Federal Reserve's retailer cost survey described 

in Chapter 4. When the lngene-Levy estimates of present value of sales are 

recomputed for a 3 percent factoring fee, the benefit to the retailer of a 

discount for cash (with unchanged regular price) disappears entirely, notwithstanding the high incidence of credit card use in the no-discount situation.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-90-

At a 3 percent discount for cash, the calculated present value of sales is 

24 cents lower per $100 of sales than when no discount at all is given.

With a 4 percent factoring fee, the 3 percent discount for cash is optimal 

by a small margin— by 13 cents per $100 of sales, compared with the no discount case. Under these conditions, if the initial proportion of credit customers or the proportion of switchers from credit to cash were even slightly 

overestimated in the surveys, the small remaining advantage to the retailer 

from offering discounts could easily be eliminated.1 With apparently so 

little to gain, then, it would not be surprising to find retailers hesitant 

to undertake programs to offer discounts for cash. Or that, if they do 

oifer discounts, they adjust their structure of prices upward compared with 

the single-price level.

Results of retailer poll on attitudes to two-tier pricing. The 

Federal Reserve's survey of retailers in April-May 1983 included a number of 

questions about the extent to which retailers had adopted discount-for-cash 

programs and about retailer attitudes toward such programs. As will be 

seen, discounts for cash were considerably more widespread among gasoline 

retailers than among other retailers. In both cases, however, the offering 

of a discount for cash was not a typical practice.

Retailers offering a discount for cash were asked the size of the

discount, how the size of the discount was decided upon, whether the discount

was available for check payment as well as cash, what limitations (if any)

applied to the discount, whether the program was permanent or was a temporary

promotional measure, and whether the discount was automatically given to cash

1. Moreover, in this relatively simple model, the costs of cash and checks are 

treated as equivalent, and payers by check also receive discounts. In fact, 

checks apparently are more costly to handle than cash. Tf customers switching 

from credit cards frequently choos? to pay by check, the gains to the retailer 

would be minimized further.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-91-

customers or had to be requested. Discount-for-cash retailers were also 

asked what proportion of their customers received discounts for cash.

Retailers not offering discounts for cash at the time of the survey 

were asked a series of questions about whether they had ever offered such a 

discount and, if so, why they had discontinued the practice, or whether they 

had ever considered offering such discounts and, if so, why they had decided 

against it. Remaining respondents were also asked why they chose not to 

offer discounts for cash, and all non-discounting retailers were asked how 

large a discount they thought they could offer (assuming no change in sales) 

and still maintain the same level of profits.

Finally, all survey respondents were asked whether they thought it

a good idea or a bad idea for a retailer to offer a discount to customers who

pay in cash instead of by credit card, and respondents were probed for the 

reasons behind their assessment. They were also asked whether a surcharge 

for credit was preferable to a discount for cash, and why.

Table 6.6 presents a listing of businesses offering discounts for 

cash, and includes information on type of business, sales volume, proportion 

of sales on credit card, size of merchant discount paid, and the size and 

other characteristics of the discount for cash. Summary statistics by size 

and type of business are provided in table 6.7.

About one-fourth of the gasoline stations surveyed said that they

provided discounts for use of cash. Other providers of discounts were widely

scattered by type of business, representing about 6-1/2 percent of all nongasoline retailers interviewed.

Aside from gasoline stations, lumber and building supply dealers 

were most frequently found to offer discounts for cash. Some dealers have 

customarily provided building contractors with discounts for immediate cash

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE 6.6

SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESSES OFFERING DISCOUNTS FOR CASH

Type of 

Bus iness

Sales 

Volume 

($ thou.)

Proport ion 

of Sales on 

Credit Card

Merchant

Discount

Paid

Size of 

Discount 

for Cash

Discount 

Also for 

Checks

Limitât ion 

on i

Cash Disc.

Automatic Proportion 

or of Customer 

"Ask for" Using

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 118,000

Store 3rd-Party

20 3.0 n.a. no n.a. auto. n.a.

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 1,000 — 5 1.9 2.0 yes — auto. 95

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 3,000 — 1 3.0 4.0 yes m i n . auto. 10

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 3,000 — 5 5.5 5.0 yes mdse. auto. 70

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 2,000 — 79 3.5 5.0 yes — auto. 21

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 1,100 — 1 2.0 10.0 yes — ask for 50

Lumber, Bldg. Supply 29,000 — 3 5.0 2.0 no — auto. 100

Paint, wallpaper 1,060 — 10 3.5 10.0 yes — auto. 100

Gas Stations 900 50 — 5.0 4.0 yes mdse . auto. 50

Gas Stations 1,100 40 10 5.0 3.0 no — auto. 25

Gas Stations 5,990 — 5 3.5 n.a. yes n.a. auto. 55

Gas Stations 17,000 — 20 3.0 5.0 yes — auto. 50

Gas Stations 156,000 5 3 3.5 5.0 yes — auto. 95

Gas Stations 1,500 20 10 5.0 3.0 no mdse. auto. 50

Gas Stations 3,000 — 10 3.5 5.0 yes mdse. auto. 90

Gas Stations 1,500 — 20 3.0 3.0 yes mdse. auto. 95

Gas Stations 1,000 — 30 3.0 n.a. yes n.a. auto. 65

Gas Stations 9,000 — 30 3.5 5.0 yes mdse. auto 40

Gas Stations 750 — 40 3.0 4.0 yes — auto. 50

Gas Stations 4,000 20 3.0 4.0 yes

”

auto. 80

1. Discounts are limited to minimum size purchases (min.). to maximum size purchases (max.), or certain types of

merchandise (mdse.).

"n.a." means a response was not 

means that no limitations

available. 

were imposed on discount availability

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE 6.6 (continued)

SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESSES OFFERING DISCOUNTS FOR CASH

Type of 

Bus ines s

Sales 

Volume 

($ thou.)

Proport ion 

of Sales on 

Credit Card

Merchant

Discount

Paid

Size of 

Discount 

for Cash

Discount 

Also for 

Checks

Limitât ion 

on

Cash Disc.

Automat ic 

or

"Ask for"

Proport ion 

of Customer 

Using Disc.

Store 3rd-Party

Gas Stations 820 10 — n.a. 4.0 yes min. auto. 90

Gas Stations 100 35 5 3.0 3.0 yes — auto. 90

Gas Stations 1,330 15 — 3.0 3.5 yes — auto. 30

Gas Stations 12,100 — 25 4.0 4.0 yes mdse. auto. 50

Gas Stations 325 — 20 3.0 4.0 no mdse. auto. 60

Gas Stations 600 50 5 3.0 n.a. yes mdse. auto. 40

Gas Stations 850 30 30 n . a . 3.0 no — auto. 60

Gas Stations 1,100 — 6 n . a . 3.5 no mdse. auto. 93

Gas Stations 1,340 — 10 3.0 3.0 yes — auto. 37

Gas Stations 107,000 15 25 n.a. 3.5 no mdse. auto. 70

Apparel 437 — 8 2.5 10.0 no max. auto. n.a.

Apparel 30 — 20 n.a. 25.0 no mdes . auto. 65

Appare1 381 — 10 3.7 5.0 no — auto. 100

Apparel 40 — 3 5.0 5.0 no — ask for 5

Appare1 10 — 7 4.0 5.0 yes min. auto. 90

Furn iture 875 — 5 3.0 5.0 yes — ask for n.a.

Furniture 2,510 — 5 3.0 3.0 yes — auto. 70

Furniture 953 — 2 4.0 10.0 yes — auto. 100

Furniture 1,750 — 1 2.0 2.0 no — auto. n.a.

Furniture 350 — 10 2.0 2.0 yes max. auto. 5

Furniture 1,500 — 15 1.5 5.0 yes mdse . auto. 15

Furn iture 1,500 — 10 4.0 n.a. yes — ask for n.a.

Floor Covering 700 __ 5 4.0 5.0 yes -- ask for 70

Floor Covering 3,000 — 5 2.5 2.0 yes — auto. 100

Floor Covering 600 — 5 2.7 4.5 no — ask for 5

Drapery & Upholstery 300 — 10 2.5 5.0 yes — ask for 50

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE 6.6 (continued)

SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESSES OFFERING DISCOUNTS FOR CASH

Type of 

Business

Sales 

Volume 

($ thou.)

Proportion 

of Sales on 

Credit Card

Merchant

Discount

Paid

Size of 

Discount 

for Cash

Discount 

Also for 

Checks

Limitat ion 

on

Cash Disc.

Automat ic 

or

"Ask for"

Proportion 

of Customer 

Using Disc.

Store 3rd-Party

Appliance & TV 700 — 15 2.5 2.0 yes mdse. ask for 30

Appliance & TV 293 — 5 2.0 n.a. yes mdse. ask for 50

Appliance & TV 32 — - 2 5.0 10.0 no — ask for 60

Music 220 — 1 4.7 4.0 no min. auto. 50

Music 47 — 4 4.0 4.0 yes mdse. auto. 50

Music 385 — 1 3.0 5.0 yes auto. 80

Drug Stores 100 — 2 4.0 4.0 no — — ask for 1

Drug Stores 800 — 1 5.0 10.0 no mdse. auto. 6

Sporting Goods 750 — 3 2.0 3.0 no — auto. 95

Stat ionery 791 — 1 4.0 10.0 yes min. auto 13

Stat ionery 8,500 — • 5 4.0 3.5 yes mdes. auto. 20

Jewelers 359 - - 45 3.0 10.0 no _____ auto. 45

Jewelers 865 — 40 3.0 5.0 no — ask for 5

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-95-

payment (or, commonly, for payment within 10 days), which may be reflected 

in the high incidence of reported discounts in this group. Among other types 

of retailers, discounts of 10 percent were fairly common and one retailer 

reported a 25 percent discount. This latter respondent may have been citing 

a broader discount pricing approach, in that a discount of 25 percent is 

likely much larger than the cost saving realizable from shifting some customers to cash from credit cards. The discounts of 10 percent also appear 

larger than supportable by cost differences alone, and thus may partly 

reflect expectations of or attempts to gain increased sales. Nevertheless, 

insofar as such discounts are tied to use of cash and not available to 

credit card users, they are appropriately treated as discounts for cash.

Summary statistics (table 6.7) show that the average size of the 

discounts for cash was just under 4 percent at gasoline stations and nearly 

6 percent at other types of retailers (column 6). At 62 percent of the 

gasoline stations and at 43 percent of other retailers, a size-of-purchase 

or type-of-merchandise restriction limited eligibility for the discount 

(column 9). Several retailers— 27 percent of the gas stations and 38 percent 

of the other retailers— excluded check transactions from their discount 

offer (column 8). The discount was automatically available at all of the 

gasoline stations, but had to be requested at a third of the other retailers 

(column 7), indicating that the availability of discounts in several cases 

was narrower than contemplated in the Cash Discount Act.

Among other statistics of note, average factoring fees paid to 

credit card issuers were slightly higher at retailers that offered discounts 

(3.4 percent) than at card-honoring retailers generally (3.1 percent, from

1. Some "discount stores," for instance, advertise goods at prices substantially 

lower than a specified list price or one described as commonly available.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE 6.7

PROPORTION OF RETAILERS OFFERING DISCOUNTS FOR CASH AND 

SELECTED STATISTICS BY TYPE AND SIZE OF RETAILER

1 1 Respondents Offering 'Discounts for Cash

I Total | Number | As Percent of: |Size of | Size of I Proportion of retailers with discount:

Categories of 

Retailers

|Number of 

|Respondents

|of Re- 

| tailers

1 All | 

! Retailers|

Card

Acceptors

|Merchant 

|Discount

| Discount 

|for Cash

| Given Only | 

| On Request |

Not Given | 

For Checks |

Subject to 

Other Limits-*-

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

All Retailers 712 61 8.6 10.7 3.4 5.1 21 34 49

Gas Stations 92 22 23.9 26.2 3.5 3.8 0 27 62

All Other 620 39 6.3 8.0 3.3 5.8 33 38 43

All other, by sales

Less than $100 thousand 79 5 6.3 13.2 4.5 9.8 40 60 60

$100-999 thousand 270 18 6.7 8.4 3.1 5.9 44 50 39

$1 - 9.99 million 169 13 7.7 9.1 3.1 4.6 23 8 38

$10 - 99.9 million

100 3 3.3 9.7 4.0 2.6 0 67 67

$100 million and over

1. Limits most commonly mentioned included restrictions on the type of merchandise eligible for discounts or on the 

minimum size of purchase to which a discount would be applied.

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-97-

table 4.9). The proportion of sales on credit cards at discount-offering 

retailers was somewhat lower than average.

Table 6.7 also indicates that the size of the discount for cash 

tended to vary with the size (sales volume) of the retailer, although the 

small number of observations limits the confidence that can be accorded the 

size-group breakdown. Still, differences in average discounts for cash among 

retailers of different size were rather striking. The pattern of difference 

is consistent with the factoring fee structure for credit cards whereby 

smaller merchants pay larger fees (and therefore have a greater incentive to 

offer larger discounts for cash).

The propensity of smaller merchants to give larger discounts is 

also consistent with the responses given by non-discounting merchants to the 

question of how large a discount they thought that they could offer and still 

maintain a given level of profits. Shown in table 6.8, this distribution 

of estimated "equal-profit" discounts shows smaller differences among retailer 

size groups, but the inverse association of size of business with size of 

discount holds across all categories of retailer.

Table 6.9 provides certain information about the retailers that 

reported not offering discounts for cash. A small number (about 4 percent 

of all respondents) once offered discounts for cash, but no longer do so. A 

larger group (about 18 percent) said they had considered offering discounts 

for cash, but had decided against such an action. Of those retailers that 

were not offering discounts, therefore, the majority had not seriously considered such an option. All retailers in these categories were asked why 

they were not offering discounts for cash. Responses are shown in the table 

for gasoline stations and all other retailers separately.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-98-

In general, there were few major differences among the categories 

of retailers in reasons for not offering discounts for cash. Many reasons 

were mentioned, with no single reason dominating the responses. Most often 

mentioned was the lack of need for such a measure, frequently because little 

or no business was transacted by credit card. Mentioned almost as often was 

the view that a discount for cash would be "too costly," would "cut profits," 

or might "start price wars." Several different reasons were mentioned by 

about 7 to 10 percent of the respondents. These included the assertions 

that discounts were "too confusing” or that "customers don't like" them, 

that discounts are "unfair" or "discriminatory" to some customers, and that 

the retailer might "lose sales" or "not gain any sales" by offering discounts. 

Bookkeeping and paperwork problems were mentioned by several gas stations 

but by only a few retailers in other lines of business.

TABLE 6.8

ACTUAL AND POSSIBLE DISCOUNTS FOR CASH AT NON-GASOLINE RETAILERS

Sales Categories 

of Retailers

Actual Discounts 

for Retailers 

That Offer 

Discounts

Possible Discount 

With Unchanged 

Profits for 

Non-discounters

Less than $100 thousand 9.8 5.3

$100 - 999 thousand 5.9 4.5

$1 - 9.99 million 4.6 3.7

$10 - 99.9 million

2.6

2.5

$100 million and over 2.2

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE 6.9

REASONS GIVEN BY RETAILERS NOT OFFERING DISCOUNTS FOR CASH

Categories of 

Retailers

1 ! 

1 Number | 

1 of Re- 1 

1 tailers |

Proportion Citing as Reason for Not Offer ing Discount

No Need; 

Not Many 

Card Sale

|Too Costly;

|Cut Profits; 

s| Price Wars

iMight Lose 1 Unfair to | 

1 Sales; No | Customers; | 

1 Sales Gain ! Discriminates 1

Difficult 1 

For Sales| 

Clerks |

Confusion; 

Customers 

Don't Like

|Bookkeeping 

|Paper Work 

| Problems

I

1A11 Other 

I Reasons

Used to Offer Discount,

Don't Now 20 20 40 5 5 — 10 10 10

Gas Stations 4 (too few observations, proportions not meaningful)

All Other 16 25 44 6 - — 6 13 6

Have Considered, Don't

Offer Discount 89 18 17 7 8 5 13 9 23

Gas Stations 15 13 20 - 7

_ 13 33 13

All Other 74 19 16 8 8 6 12 4 26

Others not Offering

Di scount 391 33 19 7 6 3 11 3 18

Gas Stations 45 24 29 9 7

_ 7 11 13

All Others 346 34 20 6 6 3 11 2 18

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-100-

All survey respondents were asked whether they thought it a good 

idea or a bad idea for a retailer to offer discounts for cash. These 

responses, with the reasons given, are shown in table 6.10. While questions 

of this theoretical open-ended nature warrant conservative interpretation, 

the proportion labeling discounts a "good idea" is nevertheless impressively 

high at 41 percent of the panel. The figure is somewhat surprising in view 

of the far smaller number of retailers that actually offer discounts for 

cash. It may be that some respondents believe discounts are a good idea for 

retailers generally but, for some reason, not in their own situation. More 

likely, the assessments mainly reflect spontaneous reactions to an issue 

by respondents who had given it little serious thought before,^ a situation 

that might tend to yield a relatively even division between "good" and "bad" 

assessments.

In view of the higher proportion of gas stations offering discounts 

than of other types of retailers, it is anomalous that a smaller proportion 

of gas stations viewed discounts favorably (34 percent) than was the case 

among other retailers (42 percent). Curiously, among the 21 gas stations 

actually offering discounts, 9 described that policy as a "bad idea." Reasons for regarding discounts as a "good idea" were rather evenly divided 

among such benefits as improved cash flow, generation of incremental sales 

or profits, a sense of fairness to cash-using customers, and better coverage 

of credit card costs.

How non-gasoline retailers of different size regarded the practice

of giving discounts for cash is shown in Table 6.11. Clearly, smaller

retailers were more likely to view discounts favorably; those in the lowest

1. As table 6.9 shows, only about 22 percent of retailers not offering discounts for cash had ever considered doing so (or had actually done so).

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-101-

sales category were twice as likely to term discounts a good idea as were 

retailers in the highest sales category. This result is, of course, consistent with findings already presented that higher proportions of smaller 

retailers provide discounts for cash, that they pay higher factoring fees 

to card issuers, and offer larger discounts for cash.

TABLE 6.10

ASSESSMENT OF DISCOUNT FOR CASH AS GOOD OR BAD IDEA, WITH REASONS CITED

Categories

of Retailers

1 Proportion^

1 Responding

i "Good Idea"

Reasons for

( percent

Regarding as Good Idea

of "good" responses)

Better Cash

Flow; Prompter

Receipt

Attract

Customers; 

Sales Higher

r

Increase I 

Profits |

Fair | Cover Cost

to | of Cards;

Customer| Reduce Fees

All Retailers 41 15 14 11 13 8

Gas Stations 34 16 19 — 29 10

All Others 42 15 13 12 10 8

1 1 Reasons for Regarding as Bad Idea

I 1 (percent of "bad" res ponses)

1 Proportion^ | Too Costly; I Unfair to | Confusion; 1 No Need; Might Lose

Categories I Responding I Cut Profits; I Customer; 1 Customers 1 Not Many Sales; No

of Retailers | "Bad Idea" I Price Wars | Discriminates | Don't Like 1 Card Sales Sales Gain

All Retailers 57 23 20 15 11 8

Gas Stations 66 17 25 13 3 12

All Other 56

“ Ti------- T “ Tj— n— :

24

_ i IT u ‘ , • _i" 11-------

19 15 13 7

Ti Proportions of "good idea" and '*bad idea" responses do not add to 100 percent within particular categories because of "don't know" responses.

Responser from survey of retailers, 1983.

Finally, respondents were asked whether, instead of a 

cash, adding an extra fee when customers use credit cards was a 

or a bad idea. (Results are shown in table 6.12.) Twenty-nine

discount for 

good idea 

percent of

all respondents who answered the question thought that surcharges for credit

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE 6.11

ASSESSMENT OF DISCOUNT FOR CASH AS GOOD OR BAD IDEA BY SIZE OF RETAILER

Category of Retailer 

By Sales Volume

1 Total 

| Non-Gasoline 

I Respondents

I Number Citing 

I Discounts for Cash As:

I Proportion Citing 

1 Discounts for Cash As:

I Good Idea I Bad Idea 1 Good Idea Bad Idea

All Respondents 613 257 341 41.9 55.6

Less than $100 thouand 80 40 38 50.0 47.5

$100 - 999 thousand 266 113 144 42.5 54.1

$1 - 9.99 million 168 73 94 43.5 56.0

$10 - 99.9 million 56 20 35 35.7 62.5

$100 million & over 41 10 29 24.4 70.7

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-103-

represented a better approach to two-tier pricing than did discounts for 

cash.l Among non-gasoline retailers, smaller businesses were more likely 

than large businesses to regard surcharges as a better idea than discounts.

On the whole, it did not appear that authorization of surcharges would have 

a major impact on the frequency of two-tier pricing. As indicated in previous 

tables, 42 percent of non-gasoline retailers described discounts for cash as 

a good idea, but only 6-1/4 percent actually were offering discounts in the 

spring of 1983. Judging from these results, if about 6 percent of those who 

thought surcharges to be the better approach would adopt two-tier pricing, 

an additional 2 percent of all non-gasoline retailers would employ a two-tier 

system.

TABLE 6.12

RETAILER COMPARISON OF CREDIT CARD SURCHARGE TO CASH DISCOUNT

Percentage of Retailers 

That Said Surcharge Good

Type of Retailer and 

Volume of Sales Categories

| Number |

1 of j

| Respondents I

or Bad Idea 

Discount for 

Good Idea

Compared to 

Cash

I Bad Idea

All Retailers 700 29 71

Gasoline Stations 89 33 67

All Other 611 28 72

Less than $100 thousand 78 41 59

$100 - 999 thousand 267 31 69

$1 - 9.99 million 167 21 79

$10 - 9.99 million 55 20 80

$100 million and over 42 26 74

Responses from survey of retailers, 1983.

1. It made little difference whether the respondent had previously described 

discounts as a good idea or a bad idea.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Bank Credit-Card and 

Check-Credit Plans. Washington, 1968.

Durkin, Thomas A., and Gregory E. Elliehausen. 1977 Consumer Credit Survey. 

Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1978.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Functional Cost Analysis. Boston, annual 

editions.

Flannery, Mark J., and Dwight M. Jaffee. The Economic Implications of an

Electronic Monetary Transfer System. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books,

1973.

Garcia, Gillian. "A Note on Bank Credit Cards' Impact on Household Money 

Holdings," Journal of Economics and Business, vol. 29 (Winter 1977), 

pp. 152-54.

__________ . "Bank Credit Cards, Time Deposits, and M2," Journal of Economics

and Business, vol. 30 (Spring/Summer 1978), pp. 230-35.

_. "Credit Cards: An Interdisciplinary Survey," Journal of Consumer

Research, vol. 6 (March 1980), pp. 327-37.

Gordon, G.G., and others. The Impact of a Consumer Credit Interest Limitation 

Law. Seattle: Graduate School of Business, University of Washington,

1970.

Grant, Robert M. "Transaction Costs to Retailers of Different Methods of

Payment. Result of a Pilot Study." Processed. Report prepared at The 

City University, London, 1982.

Gushee, Charles H . , ed. The Cost of Personal Borrowing in the United States. 

Boston: Financial Publishing Company, 1979, 1982.

Ingene, Charles A., and Michael Levy. "Cash Discounts to Retail Customers:

An Alternative to Credit Card Sales," Journal of Marketing, vol. 46 

(Spring 1982), pp. 92-103.

Johnson, Robert W. Retailers: CRC 1979 Creditor Survey. West Lafayette,

Ind.: Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, 1980.

Katona, George, Lewis Mandell, and Jay Schmiedeskamp. 1970 Survey of Consumer

Finances. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Survey Research Center, Institute for 

Social Research, University of Michigan, 1971.

Lynch, Gene C. "Consumer Credit at Ten Per Cent Simple: The Arkansas Case,"

University of Illinois Law Review (1968), pp. 592-601.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-2-

Mandell, Lewis, and others. Surveys of Consumers: 1971-72. Ann Arbor,

Mich.: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1973.

Marcus, Edward. "The Impact of Credit Cards on Demand Deposit Utilization," 

Southern Economic Journal, vol. 26 (April 1960), pp. 314-16.

McAlister, E. Ray and Edward DeSpain. An Empirical Analysis of Retail Revolving 

Credit. West Lafayette, Ind.: Krannert Graduate School of Management, 

Purdue University, Monograph No. 1, 1975.

Miller, Stephen M. "The Money Supply Process and Credit Card Use: An Empirical 

Analysis," Eastern Economic Journal, vol. 8 (April 1982), pp. 89-99.

Montgomery, Edward B. "Tests of Alternative Explanations of the Decline in

the Personal Saving Rate." Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1982.

National Commission on Consumer Finance. Consumer Credit in the United 

States. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1972.

Payments Systems, Inc. Cost of Cash: A Strategic Analysis. Atlanta, 1981.

Russell, Thomas. The Economics of Bank Credit Cards. New York: Praeger, 1975.

Shay, Robert P . , and William C. Dunkelberg. Retail Store Credit Card Use in 

New York. New York: Graduate School of Business, Columbia University,

Studies in Consumer Credit, No. 4, 1975.

Touche Ross & Co. "Economics of New York State Retail Store Revolving Credit 

Operations for the Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 1973," in Robert P.

Shay and William C. Dunkelberg, Retail Store Credit Card Use in New 

York. New York: Graduate School of Business, Columbia University,

Studies in Consumer Credit, No. 4, 1975.

White, Kenneth. "Consumer Choice and Use of Bank Credit Cards: A Model and

Cross-Section Results," Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 2 (January 

1975), pp. 10-18.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX A

TEXT OF CASH DISCOUNT ACT OF 1981

95 STAT. 144 PUBLIC LAW 97-25—JULY 27, 1981

P u b lic L aw 9 7-25

97 th C ongress

A n A ct

July 27, 1981

;h.r. :iij To amend the Truth in Lending Act to encourage cash discounts, and for other

purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House o f Representatives o f the

Cash Discount United States o f America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be Act cited as the “Cash Discount Act”

15 USC 1601

note TITLE I—CASH DISCOUNTS

15 USC 1605.

“Regular price.’’

15 USC 1602 

note.

94 Stat J 69.

15 USC 1666f 

note.

Supia.

Se c . 101. Section 167(b) of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1666f(b)) is amended to read as follows: “(b) With respect to any sales transaction, any discount from the regular price offered by the seller for the purpose of inducing payment by cash, checks, or other means not involving the use of an open-end credit plan or a credit card shall not constitute a finance charge as determined under section 106 if such discount is offered to all prospective buyers and its availability is disclosed clearly and conspicuously.”.

Sec. 102. (a) Section 103 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1602) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: “(z) As used in this section and section 167, the term ‘regular price’ means the tag or posted price charged for the property or service if a single price is tagged or posted, or the price charged for the property or service when payment is made by use of an open-end credit plan or a credit card if either (1) no price is tagged or posted, or (2) two prices are tagged or posted, one of which is charged when payment is made by use of an open-end credit plan or a credit card and the other when payment is made by use of cash, check, or similar means. For purposes of this definition, payment by check, draft, or other negoti­ able instrument which may result in the debiting of an open-end credit plan or a credit cardholder’s open-end account shall not be considered payment made by use of the plan or the account.”. (b) Effective April 10,1982— (1) subsections (x) and (y) of section 103 of the Truth in Lending Act (as redesignated by section 603(b) of Public Law 96-221) are redesignated as subsections (y) and (z), respectively; and (2) subsection (z) of such section (as added by subsection (a)) is redesignated as subsection (x) and is inserted after subsection (w).

Sec. 103. Any rule or regulation of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System pursuant to section 167(b) of the Truth in Lending Act, as such section was in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act, is null and void.

TITLE II—BAN ON CREDIT CARD SURCHARGES

Sec. 201. Section 3(cX2) of Public Law 94-222 (15 U.S.C. 1666f note) is amended to read as follows: “(2) The amendments made by paragraph (1) shall cease to be effective on February 27,1984.”.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-A-2

PUBLIC LAW 97-25—JULY 27, 1981

Sec. 202. Not later than two years.after the date of enactment of this Act, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall prepare a study, on the basis of a review and analysis of such data and studies as it finds appropriate, and shall submit its findings to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs of the House of Representatives on the effect of charge card transactions upon card issuers, merchants, and consumers, including to the extent possible—(1) the effects of charge card transactions on retail sales; (2) the effect of charge card usage on consumers and on merchants, including the effects on merchant cost; and (3) the effect of charge card usage on the pricing of goods and services, with a comparison of the costs resulting from payment by (A) currency and coin, (B) by personal check or similar instrument, (C) by in-house credit plans, and (O) by charge card.

TITLE HI-MISCELLANEOUS

Sec. 301. Section 625(c) of Public Law 96-221 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: “Any creditor who elects to comply with such amendments and any assignee of such a creditor shall lie subject to the provisions of sections 130 and 131 of the Truth in Lending Act, as amended by sections 615 and 616, respectively, of this title.”.

Sec. 302. Section 5137 of the Revised Statutes (12 U.S.C. 29) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraph: “Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, any national banking association which, on the date of enactment of this para­ graph, held title to and possession of real estate which was carried on the association’s books at a nominal value on December 31,1979, may continue to hold such real estate until December 31, 1982, if the earnings from such real estate are separately disclosed in the finan­ cial statements of the association.”.

Sec. 303. (a) Section 204 of the Public Health Service Act is amended bv inserting after the first sentence the following new sentence: “The President may appoint to the office of Surgeon General an individual who is sixty-four years of age or older.”. (b) Section 211(a)(1) of such Act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new sentence: “This paragraph does not apply to the Surgeon General of the United States.”.

Approved July 27, 1981.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—H R. 31 (H R 3132) (S. 414):

HOUSE REPORT No. 97-159 (Comm, of Conference).

SENATE REPORT No 97-23 Accompanying S. 414 (Comm, on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs)

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Voi. 127 0 981):

Feb. 24, considered and passed House.

Mar. 5, S 414 considered in Senate.

Mar. 12, considered and passed Senate, amended, in lieu of S 414 

May 4, H.R. 3132 considered and passed House.

May 20, June 24, House considered and agreed to conference report.

July 14, Senate agreed to conference report.

o

95 STAT. 145

Study findings, 

submittal to 

congressional 

committees.

15 USC 1601 

note.

94 Stat. 185. 

15 USC 1602 

note.

94 Stat. 180, 182. 

15 USC 1640, 

1641.

94 Stat. 186.

42 USC 205.

Presidential

appointee.

42 USC 212.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX B

FEDERAL RESERVE SURVEYS ON CREDIT CARDS AND RELATED MATERIALS

The Federal Reserve Board has sponsored a number of consumer and 

retailer surveys, mentioned in the text of this report, that focus on credit 

cards to some extent. Three surveys— two of consumers in 1982 and 1983, 

and one of retailers in 1983— were designed specifically to address issues 

discussed in the report. All of the consumer and retailer surveys summarized 

below were conducted on behalf of the Federal Reserve Board by the Survey 

Research Center (SRC), Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. 

In addition, the Federal Reserve Board initiated, and served as a joint 

sponsor of, a benchmark Survey of Consumer Finances in 1983. Information 

from over 4,000 households was collected by SRC mainly in the spring and 

summer of 1983. Results are not yet available.

1977 Consumer Credit Survey. A survey of 2,563 households, conducted in August and September of 1977, explored consumer use of different 

types of credit, and measured consumer awareness, understanding, attitudes, 

and behavior regarding credit and its regulation. Field work was jointly 

sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the 

Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. An analysis of the 

information obtained in the survey was published in Thomas A. Durkin and 

Gregory E. Elliehausen, 1977 Consumer Credit Survey (Washington: Board of 

Governors of the Federal Reserve System, December 1978).

1978 Follow-up Survey of Consumers. In August and November of 

1978, SRC conducted reinterviews with many of the same households questioned 

in the 1977 Consumer Credit Survey. An analysis of some of the reinterview 

findings appeared in Charles A. Luckett, "Household Financial Behavior:

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-B-2-

Implications for Consumer Spending," West Lafayette, Ind.: Krannert Graduate

School, Credit Research Center Working Paper No. 37 (1980).

Consumer holding and use of credit cards. On several occasions in 

1981, 1982, and 1983, SRC included a set of Board-sponsored questions on 

credit card holdings and use in its regular monthly Survey of Consumer 

Attitudes that covers about 700 households. Results appear at various places 

in this report.

Consumer reactions to discounts for cash. In October 1982 SRC 

included a set of Board-sponsored questions about cash discounts in its 

regular monthly Survey of Consumer Attitudes. Approximately 700 households 

were queried about their reactions to discounts for cash on purchases of 

furniture and appliances and clothing through a series of questions about 

certain hypothetical situations. Results are discussed in Chapter 6 of this 

report.

Means of payment for gasoline purchases. In its January 1983 Survey 

of Consumer Attitudes, SRC asked approximately 700 households a set of Boardsponsored questions about consumer use of credit cards to purchase gasoline, 

and about consumer experience with discounts for cash in buying gasoline. 

Results are discussed in Chapter 6 of this report.

Retailer credit policy. SRC conducted a Board-sponsored survey in 

April-May 1983 of a sample of retail organizations, primarily to develop 

information about relative costs to merchants of cash, check, and credit 

card transactions, merchant preferences regarding these modes of transactions, merchant experience with cash discounts, and merchant attitudes toward 

discounts for cash and surcharges for credit.

The survey was based on telephone interviews with 713 retail 

establishments selected as a stratified random sample among types of firms

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-B-3-

likely to accept several means of payment, including credit cards. The study 

population encompassed all retail establishments in the coterminous United 

States with a primary Standard Industrial Classification code from one of 

the following categories: 52 (building materials and garden supplies),

except 527 (mobile home dealers); 53 (general merchandise stores); 553 (auto 

and home supply stores); 554 (gasoline service stations); 56 (apparel and 

accessory stores); 57 (furniture and home furnishing stores); 591 (drug 

stores and proprietary stores); 594 (miscellaneous shopping good stores);

5961 (mail order houses); 5983 (fuel oil dealers); 5984 (liquefied petroleum 

gas dealers); and 5992 (florists). Results of the survey are discussed in 

various places in this report, especially Chapters 4 and 6.

Other Federal Reserve materials on credit cards. In 1968, a Federal 

Reserye System Report was published on Bank Credit-Card and Check-Credit Plans 

(July 1968). At the end of 1972, the Bank Report of Condition contained a 

special statistical supplement on credit cards, analyzed by David F. Seiders 

in "Credit-Card and Check-Credit Plans at Commercial Banks," Federal Reserve 

Bulletin (September 1973), pp. 646-53. In addition, in its monthly statistical 

release entitled "Consumer Installment Credit" (G.19), the Federal Reserve 

Board regularly publishes estimates of the amount of revolving credit at 

commercial banks, gasoline companies, and retailers.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX C

HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE OF TWO-TIER PRICING OF GASOLINE

This Appendix presents a hypothetical^ example of gasoline pricing 

before and after adoption of a discount-for-cash program. The example assumes 

that there are no shifts in underlying wholesale gasoline prices, that sales 

volume remains constant, and that the gasoline retailer has an objective of 

maintaining a constant level of profits.^ The purpose of the example is to 

indicate the relationship that could be expected between a former single 

price for gasoline and a new two-tier set of prices, using estimates about 

certain aspects of buyer behavior that were discussed in Chapter 6, section 2.

The example, shown in table C.l, is constructed with 100 customers 

each buying one gallon of gasoline. Drawing on the household survey results, 

the assumption is made that about 40 customers would use credit cards and 

60 would pay in cash in the absence of a discount offer. For sake of illustration, it is assumed that gross receipts of $120 would cover all costs, 

including credit card costs, and yield the gasoline seller some desired 

level of profits. Obviously, under a single-price system, the retail price 

of a gallon of gas would be $1.20 to each customer.

Introduction of a discount-for-cash policy complicates the price

structure. In line with the discussion in Chapter 6 and statistics in

table 6.2, when a discount is offered, the proportions of cash and credit

buyers are assumed to shift from .60 and .40, respectively, to .75 and .25.

1. It is recognized that the introduction of a discount-for-cash program may 

affect a station's volume of sales, at least at first. The station may hope 

to increase sales by attracting cash users away from competitors. But— to 

repeat a point made elsewhere in this report— competitive response by other 

stations is likely to minimize any sales advantage initially accruing to a 

dealer that sets up a two-tier system. Unless two-tier pricing were to 

stimulate total industry-wide gasoline sales, it would be inappropriate to 

assume some permanent sales gain for any particular retailer.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- 0 2 -

In the present example, then, 75 persons would buy for cash and 25 would use 

a credit card under two-tier pricing, for a net shift of 15 customers from 

credit to cash. Since this shift would reduce the seller's cost of carrying 

receivables, the gross revenue needed to maintain level profits would drop by 

15 times the per gallon cost saving. In the example, a credit-handling cost 

of 3 cents per gallon of gas sold on credit is used, which approximates the 

cost estimated by several major gasoline companies. By influencing 15 customers to switch from credit card to cash, the gas station in the example 

could save 45 cents in credit servicing costs, thus reducing the level of 

gross revenues needed to maintain constant profits to $119.55 from $120.

Assuming that the cash price and credit price would be set to differ 

by the amount of credit-related costs per gallon, it can be calculated (as

shown in table C.l) that the gasoline seller would need to price gas at 

$1,188 for cash sales and $1,218 for credit sales.1 Because the lower price 

for cash must be offered to those who would pay cash anyway, the cash price 

cannot be reduced from the old $1.20 price by the full amount of the per 

gallon cost of credit. Instead, the two-tier price would points bracket the 

old single price point.

Retail gasoline prices in the real world often fluctuate a few

cents from week to week. Thus it is difficult to judge how closely an

actual station's two-tier price structure vis-a-vis an alternative single

price policy might compare with the example sketched here. However, as noted,

1. Alternatively, rather than assuming a price differential equal to the 

difference in cost between credit card and cash transactions, then solving 

for the two prices, one could assume the credit price to be set equal 

to the price that would be charged in a one-tier system ($1.20 in this 

example), then solve the equations for the cash price. Under this approach, 

it can be calculated that, given the credit price of $1.20 in the two-tier 

system, the cash price would have to be at least $1,194 to maintain the 

target level of profits.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- 0 3 -

values of the key variables in the example were chosen--based on survey

results— to realistically reflect conditions faced by typical gasoline

retailers. Moreover, as further calculations under alternative assumptions

would show, the implications of the example do not depend narrowly on the

specific values of the variables used. That is, under widely different

customer purchasing habits, the new two-tier price schedule would still

bracket the old one-tier price. For instance, if it were assumed that

as many as 60 percent (instead of 40 percent) of the customers would use

credit cards in a single-price system, and that only 20 percent would use

credit cards in a two-tier system,1 the "equal-profit" prices would be $1,182

for cash and $1,212 for credit, compared with the one-tier price of $1.20.

1. In other words, 40 percent of the total customer base would switch from 

credit card to cash in this alternative, compared with 15 percent who switched 

in the original example.

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- 0 4 -

TABLE C.l

HYPOTHETICAL GASOLINE PRICING WITH CONSTANT PROFITS 

UNDER ONE-TIER AND TWO-TIER PRICING SCHEMES

_____ Single-price case_____

aX + bY = R revenue function

X - Y = 0 price structure

____Two-tier pricing: _

(a+s) X + (b-s) Y = R - cs 

X = Y - c

calculations :

60 X + 40Y = $120 

X - Y = 0

100 X = $120

(60+s)X + (40-s)Y = $120 - $.03s 

X - Y = -c

X = $ 1.20

Y = $ 1.20

100 X = $118.80 

X = $ 1.188

Y = $ 1.218

75 X + 25 Y = $119.55

____ X - Y = - $ .03

where : X = cash price 

Y = credit price

a = number of customers per 100 that typically pays cash 

b = number of customers per 100 that typically uses credit card 

R = desired gross revenue for initial cash/credit sales mix 

s = number of customers that shifts to cash from credit 

c = cost of financing receivables per gallon of gas sold on credit

assumptions:

a = 60, b = 40 

R = $120 

s = 15 

c = .03

each customer buys one gallon of gas

Digitized for FRASER 

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ 

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis