All About Credit Cards

Do you currently face an increasing amount of credit card debt? And do you happen to be in graduate school? In 2006, a college financing company surveyed graduate students in order to determine their card usage statistics. Here are the highlights that I found most intriguing:

* The average balance of graduate student cards is over $8,600
* Only 20% of survey respondents paid off their balance each month
* Ninety-three percent of these students would have appreciated their undergraduate school to have offered financial management classes
* About 94% of these grad students used credit cards to pay for some portion of their direct education expenses, primarily textbooks.

The fact that the average balance is so high is a bit scary. If it’s not paid off, these students could see their interest increase the balance another $1,500 each year!

Of the above points, the latter is the only statistic that we, at StudentPlatinum, would possibly recommend. If you’ve got a low enough APR and you couldn’t find a better deal with a private college loan, then financing your education would have some value. Other than that, the high balance students have - combined with the low number of students who pay their entire balance - makes it seem that additional financial education even at the high school level would be extremely valuable. Just don’t ask the credit card companies to foot the bill!