Some individuals borrow extensively on their credit cards. This paper tests whether presentbiased
time preferences correlate with credit card borrowing. In a field study, we elicit
individual time preferences with incentivized choice experiments, and match resulting time
preference measures to individual credit reports and annual tax returns. The results indicate
that present-biased individuals are more likely to have credit card debt, and have significantly
higher amounts of credit card debt, controlling for disposable income, other sociodemographics,
and credit constraints.