Entre o porrete, a cenoura e os empurrões: como medidas regulatórias híbridas podem aprimorar a renogociação das faturas de cartão de crédito

Abstract

Until 2017, credit cards’ invoices could be refinanced without temporal limitation. This fact, combined with the excessive use of the revolving credit line, has resulted in a notorious condition of users’ indebtedness. For this reason, in that year, Brazilian Central Bank changed the regulation of this matter, so that the invoices’ outstanding balance could only be refinanced with revolving credit line until the due date of the next invoice. This paper intends to show that there are behavioral elements that are not being directly considered and faced by the regulatory institution, which completely threatens the achievement of the objectives sought by the new regulatory framework. After discussing in detail the biases directly related to the use of credit cards – excessive intertemporal discounts and the pain of paying reduction –, the paper suggests possible behavioral interventions that could improve the new rules proposed by Brazilian Central Bank.