Another look at credit card pricing and its disclosure: Is the semi-annual pricing data reported by credit card issuers to the Fed helpful to consumers or researchers?

Credit Card Pricing Developments and Their Disclosure,” a January 2003 Payment Cards Center Discussion Paper, examined the history and dynamics of credit card pricing and how such pricing is described to consumers in Truth in Lending solicitation disclosures. In this paper, we examine credit card pricing as revealed to consumers in a different context: that of a semiannual shopping guide that the Board of Governors publishes pursuant to the Truth in Lending Act. Specifically, we ask two questions: Are the data on credit card pricing in the guide useful to consumers? Are the data collected for the guide (commonly known as Terms of Credit Card Plan [TCCP] data) of value to researchers? With respect to both of these questions, we find that the data are becoming less useful.