College students are running up an alarmingly large amount of credit card debt these days and it is only increasing with the passage of time. The average undergraduate student carries $2,500 in credit card debt, and when they graduate from college they begin their new lives with debt that they can"t pay. Students figure "I"ll live like I want to live now and then when I get a job, it will be easy to pay it back. " This is often not the case. Lower-than-expected salaries, plus higher-than-expected living ex- penses and hefty student loan payments, make handling credit card debt all the more difficult for students and recent graduates. The worst part about college students having so much credit card debt is that it takes so long to pay it off. Even if an individual is able to make the minimum payments, it would take more than 12 years and $1,115 in inter- est to pay off a $1,000 bill on a card with an 18 percent annual rate. If students fall behind in their payments, they get slammed with high late fees. And it"s easy for things to get out of hand. "Of course, there are two sides to this story," Charles Hughes, a Certified Financial Planner said. "Most college students start out with little or no credit. Having a credit card seems like a good idea so they can start building a credit history in an- ticipation of owning a new, or better, car and some day their own home. " |