Credit Card Use Down?

Posted by: Meredith K. | Dec 28,2007


OK, this sort of flies into the face of most everything I’ve written on this blog, as well as what a lot of people have been saying about credit card debt.  Then again it’s not always foolproof to trust polls.  Like recently in the news there’s been nothing but talk that Obama is surging and Clinton is faltering.  Then comes a poll saying Clinton’s ahead in Iowa.  What poll are you to believe?  

Even so, this current study shows good news about students and credit cards, so the optimist in me wants to believe this study gives the accurate picture.  The basic message of the study is that credit card use is down with college students, being replaced with debit cards.  However, here’s the kicker: even though students are carrying fewer cards, they still are carrying an average credit card debt of over $2000.  Graduate students have the highest debt burden overall, at $8600.

What is glass-half-empty about this study is that it acknowledges that student loan debt is indeed up, even if credit card use is going down.  Students’ overall problems with debt must be taken into consideration, because the combined burden of student loans and credit cards means that students are going to be in debt for longer post-graduation.  It also means that they’re at a greater risk to default.  

All right, I went from optimism to pessimism.  It’s not that I want students to be in debt, but when I see rosy pictures like this, I get slightly suspicious because my sense is that credit cards are a very real problem for students both during school and after graduation.  The concern is that a student could read a study such as this and use it as license to start using cards irresponsibly.  

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