Credit Card Debit for College Students

College is a place where young adults get bombarded with all new types of responsibility. Some college students handle it very well, while others struggle to embrace their newfound responsibilities. One problem that has been causing turmoil in the past decade or so is credit card debt. More and more college students are receiving credit cards and using them to purchase anything from food to paying for their college tuition even when they do not have the money to pay the monthly bill each month. With no way to pay the credit card companies they allow their balance to rollover month after month and grow due to late fees and more purchases until the debt becomes so large some students are forced to file for bankruptcy.

The national average of college undergraduates with credit cards is eighty-four percent, while the average number of cards per person is four point six (Sallie “How”). With only seventeen percent of college students paying their monthly balances off, four point six cards can grow into a hefty balance over four to five years of college. Graduating seniors had an average four thousand one hundred dollars in debt (Sallie “How”). That puts the average just over one thousand dollars per year that students allow their debt to grow. Some students can even get balances that exceed seven thousand dollars by the time they graduate college. Credit card debt is a very widespread problem in the United States. The West has the greatest percentage of students with cards at ninety-one, while the Northeast has the fewest with only seventy-nine percent (Sallie “How”). Even though the Northeast has the lowest averages they still have outrageous percentages of card ownerships and debt, and these numbers only increase from year to year. With these percentages so high it is a wonder that the colleges and/or government has not stepped in and tried to aid the situation.

The conditions that lead to severe credit card debt are far too many to list. Some of the main...