College Seniors Most Likely to Pay Late, Max Out Credit Cards

I regularly check out CBS’s financial website MoneyWatch.com, and one of my favorite bloggers on the site is Dan Kadlec, best known for his column Bank of Dad. I enjoy his writing because he focuses a lot of his columns on financial education for young people and shows parents how to teach their kids responsible credit card usage.

Last week, Kadlec dedicated his column to college students and credit card debt, and he cited a study by the Take Charge America Institute that I wanted to share here. Some of the findings in the study are very surprising and don’t bode well for college students with multiple credit cards.

As you can see, college students are more likely to have credit cards problems by the time they reach their senior year. College seniors have more credit card debt, use credit cards more often, don’t pay on time, max out their credit cards, and have more credit cards than their underclassmen counterparts.

I don’t think that college seniors are less financially savvy or irresponsible with how they use their money. Yes, there are students maxing out their credit cards at the bar, but even responsible students are faced with a dangerous combination of rising tuition costs and credit card companies targeting students with the help of the schools themselves. I haven’t even mentioned that with the rise in unemployment, many students are paying their own way through school without any help from parents or guardians.

This study is frightening to me because it means that young people will be leaving college with a pile of debt and a damaged credit score, and depending upon what degree they received, they might not be able to pay off that debt anytime soon. There is some good news, however, for students falling behind on payments or graduates with poor credit scores. My Credit Specialist can help put young people back on the right track through credit repair and education. They can look over your credit history for mistakes or outdated items, and once they get those items removed, My Credit Specialist will sit down with you and help you put together a budget to keep you out of debt.

To read more credit education articles, go to http://blog.mycreditspecialist.com, and go to http://www.mycreditspecialist.com to sign up for a free credit evaluation.