Quick Facts about Students and Credit Cards
Here are a few quick facts to digest. These numbers relate to college aged students and their credit cards…
Average Balance- $885
% of Students who keep first credit card- 70% +
Average # of credit cards per student- 2.8 cards
Average # of credit card solicitations per semester- 25-50
In my opinion, the most interesting statistics from the UCMS is that 8.5% of dropouts cite financial pressure/debt as their main reason for leaving school. That number is higher then the 6% who cited academic failure. Does that mean the hardest part of college is not studying and passing exams? It is possible the most difficult lesson you will learn in college is how to manage your checkbook?
Are you kidding??? Financial pressure that causes students to drop out of school is NOT due to credit card debt, it is due to students not being able to afford tuition, books, clothes, car payment/insurance/maintenance, housing (rent and utilities), medical insurance/doctor’s bills, food, etc., while spending all their time in classes and studying. No one truly interested in making decent grades can afford to spend much of their precious time and energy working. Also, everyone knows that the little part time jobs students have to take never pay much money. Most of those jobs are minimum wage and the average student usually doesn’t work anymore than 10-20 hours a week. The good pay checks are AFTER you finish college, not before…when you need it most.
Not everyone who goes to college has a silver spoon in their mouth and a mommy and daddy footing the bill. There are a LOT of people trying to do the entire thing on their own with no help from anyone. I was one of them and the financial pressure is unbelievable when you have no one to turn to and your only source of help is student loans and a minimum wage part-time job that drains away what little energy you need to study for your exams. It is very scary to watch those loans get bigger and bigger with each class you take and the passing of each semester. It can be very overwhelming. However, for some of us, it is the only option. As for credit cards, they are the smallest chunk of change in the vast debt pool of obtaining a college education. They are at the bottom of the list of financial reasons for dropping out of college…unless they were the students only source of income to pay for books and tuition. If the credit cards needed to pay for these items were maxed out, then a student would have to drop out of college.