College Students and Personal Finance Education

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how commerce on the Internet is conducted almost entirely with credit cards or with Internet accounts established with credit cards and how, for many, particularly young people for whom cash has never been a necessity, it is easy to give in to the urge for instant gratification, even when there are no funds available to support this gratification. It shows how, in particular, college students may fall victim to this trap, since they may not see a credit card purchase as spending with real money, they have little or no experience with credit cards or loans, and they are new to living independently from parents who have advised them not to buy things in the past. It examines the how, increasingly, student debt upon graduation is a crippling burden upon the student. It explores how the potential solution is to educate college students how to use their credit cards wisely and how to structure student loans and career plans with an eye toward the future, both of which can be accomplished by attending personal finance classes and by beginning with smaller credit card lines.

From the Paper:

"The problem of student debt is twofold, and therefore, managing student debt should employ a double-barreled approach. Credit card/consumer debt is only one facet of the student debt issue, but students need to be able to distinguish between their necessary federally-funded student loan debt and their self-imposed credit card debt. In recent years, it has become common practice for credit card vendors to set up shop on college and university campuses, usually near the school bookstore (Fisher). Once established on campus, credit card companies attempt to lure students into signing up for credit cards by offering free incentives such as tee shirts or water bottles (Fisher). It is all too easy for students to succumb to the temptation for and the ease of obtaining credit cards when these credit lines are pushed so forcefully toward the often nave college student cohort."

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