Price Complexity in Tariff Choice Situations: An Investigation of Service Type

In this paper we describe three experiments comparing customer responses to complex prices between four services: banking, flights, health clubs, and mobile communication. The first study analyzes the effect of price complexity on tariff preference for simplicity. The second study analyzes the effect of price ending regularity, number of price elements, and arithmetic difficulty on perceived price complexity. The third study analyzes the effect of price complexity on willingness to pay. Price complexity consistently reduces the appeal of a tariff at the same price. Service type strongly moderates the links leading to and from perceived price complexity.