Don’t let your student drown in debt!

The world of credit cards is foreign to the beginning college student. There is a growing number of college graduates who are seeking help to avoid bankruptcy because of personal credit card debts. These student debts are unfortunately only minimally related to the actual expenses for college. For the most part, they are debts that were incurred for unnecessary items.

The rate of student debts has increased in part due to the intense marketing the credit card companies are focusing on college campuses around the country. Visit a college campus in the fall when all the freshmen are beginning their orientation. If you look around the common areas you will see a sea of folding tables, manned by credit card company representative that are grabbing students’ attention with giveaways and gift cards. 

These card that are being offered are usually ones with incredibly high interest rates, and usually grant the applicant large lines of credit that are not at all proportionate to the actual income of the student. This creates a situation where the student credit card debt rises along with their age. And the rise can be exponential when considering the loans already secured for the tuition.

Colleges need to take a proactive stance against student credit card debt. They are teaching the students what they need to know for a particular career, but they are not giving them the information they need to operate within that career’s prospective income. This is a sad fact, given the amount of money it takes to get the education in the first place.

Student credit card debt is draining our economy. It is a huge contributor to the recession we are facing. An entire generation was raised to think that instant gratification is only as far away as the next card swipe. There has been no concept of the action being linked to later stress and mounting bills.

Hopefully high schools, or even colleges will begin to add a life-skills type seminar for students getting ready to graduate that will inform them of these vulture-like credit card companies and the urge to express independence by running up the bills. If it became a commonplace idea that credit cards are a HUGE responsibility, perhaps student credit card debt will not continue to lessen the positive experience of gaining a degree.