Can digital repayment reminders reduce costly credit card delinquency? This paper analyzes data from a 2016 randomized controlled field trial of a reminder sent to 30-days-overdue credit card debtors via an app or online portal. The reminder significantly raised repayment rates, and amounts repaid, of high credit score delinquent debtors, but did not significantly raise the repayment rate of lower credit score delinquents. The reduction in average delinquency among treated debtors continues for at least 12 months after treatment and substantially reduces provisioning expenses of the credit provider. We find that 2.4 percentage points (CI 1.68–3.12) more treated than untreated debtors (64.3% compared with 61.9%) repay all arrears within the current repayment cycle. For the 84.4% of the sample who we observed logged in and saw the reminder, the effect rises to 2.7 percentage points (CI 1.95–3.50).

How are trading activity and performance impacted by material events during individual investors’ lifetimes? Using a unique dataset, we identify transfers of common stock initiated by the major event of divorce and analyze trading patterns and performance of divorced traders. In aggregate, divorcing individuals underperform, and part of this underperformance is due to liquidation needs arising from divorce. Cross-sectionally, however, actively-trading divorced investors demonstrate superior performance in the window surrounding divorce settlement, while underperforming just prior to divorce. This result survives a difference-in-differences analysis based on a propensity-score matched sample of non-divorced investors. Our analysis thus suggests that the life-cycle distraction of divorce temporarily reduces the performance of active retail traders, which improves once the stressor is removed.