The remaining customers received one of three quarterly emailed messages. One group was merely told via email that the quarterly update to their score was available. A second group received an additional message explaining how FICO scores affect one’s finances. A final group saw a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses-type exhortation that people just like them were taking steps to manage their financial future. Due to privacy issues, individual FICO scores were not included in emails; participants had to sign in to their Sallie Mae account to get their score.
Nearly a third of Sallie Mae customers who received any of the three email messages in the first year of the study checked their score at least once, compared to just one in five in the control group. There was no difference across the various email message groups.
The nudge also seems to have some beneficial consequences, measured one year after the intervention began. Among participants who received an email reminder, the rate of being at least 30 days late on bill payments was 4 percent lower than in the control group. When the researchers looked at the same variable among emailed participants who were induced to check their score as a result of the intervention, the incidence of late payments was 9 percentage points lower than among participants who did not receive emails. The average FICO score was 8 points higher for the emailed cohort. The researchers write that “it does appear that viewing one’s FICO Score drives financial behaviors which, on net, improve the creditworthiness of individuals.”
The efficacy of the emails seems to stem from combatting overoptimism. In a separate survey that included 3,500 Sallie Mae customers, individuals were asked to self-report their FICO scores. The researchers compared these estimates with actual scores, and the accuracy was 14 percent higher for people who received the email nudge than for those in the control group. Specifically, emailed participants were less likely to overestimate their score.