Pain of paying

The pain of paying is the discomfort of parting with money at the moment of payment. Drazen Prelec and George Loewenstein described it in 1998, arguing that payment methods differ in how vividly they make us feel the cost: cash is felt more than a card, and a card more than a stored payment or a subscription. Research on credit card use has found that people can be willing to pay more when they pay by card. This page collects our articles, quizzes and videos on how payment design changes what we spend, and how to notice it.