Credit card companies typically offer limited-time teaser interest rates [also known as promotional annual percentage rates (APRs)] to attract new customers. Firms hope that the promotional APRs will encourage consumers not only to open accounts, but also to transfer balances from other credit cards, revolve credit card balances, or take cash advances, each of which would lead to an increase in the firm’s profit. It is important to understand the effect of the promotional rates on customer behavior. Important research questions include: Does the lure of a low APR increase indebtedness of a customer over the short run and the long run? Between two segments—needy and opportunistic customers—which group is more likely to take advantage of the offer? A related important question for firms is whether the low APRs increase the financial risk (i.e., probability of delinquency or the probability of default of a customer) thus imposing costs of monitoring and balance recovery on the firm. Given the limited published research on these topics, we take a closer look at some of the behavioral patterns associated with the offer of promotional APRs in this study.

中文翻译：

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促销利率对信用卡行业客户借贷和支付行为的影响

信用卡公司通常会提供限时预告利率[也称为促销年度百分比（APR）]，以吸引新客户。公司希望促销的APR不仅鼓励消费者开立帐户，而且还鼓励从其他信用卡中转移余额，循环使用信用卡余额或提取现金，每一项都会导致公司利润的增加。重要的是要了解促销率对客户行为的影响。重要的研究问题包括：从短期和长期来看，低APR的诱惑是否会增加客户的债务？在两个细分市场-顽皮的客户和机会主义的客户之间-哪个组更可能利用此优惠？对于企业而言，一个相关的重要问题是，较低的年利率是否会增加财务风险（即 违约概率或客户违约概率），从而给企业带来了监督和平衡收支的成本。鉴于在这些主题上发表的研究有限，我们将仔细研究本研究中与提供促销APR相关的一些行为模式。