One of the issues that brought us to the financial crisis we are now experiencing is debt, including (but not exclusive to) credit cards. A recent study shows that college students not only continue to rack up debt, the amount is increasing.
Students tend to be, based on recent NBC Dateline reports, targeting by credit card companies. They also, based on the reports, tend to live on and depend on credit cards.
The Sallie Mae report states that the average undergraduate student now carries record credit card debt, the highest since Sallie Mae began collecting data in 1998.
The average amount of debt is $3,173, as compared to $2,169 in 2004, an increase of 46%. Naturally this is an average of credit card debt over the entire undergraduate cycle; the study notes that by senior year average debt reaches $4,138 per student, an increase of 44%.
Undoubtedly much of this credit card use is the result of the tuitions increases colleges have place on students; many have wondered why tuition has easily outpaced inflation. The answers should be obvious: greed, the economy, and reduced funding from states and feds.
BTW, not necessarily greed per se at the colleges, but greed overall. Colleges state they must increase salaries of their "executive level" staff or they cannot attract them. The lure of the reward of teaching has been supplanted by the lure of cash, apparently.
It shouldn't be forgotten that at the same time banks are increasing fees and interest rates on credit cards, placing still more of a burden on students.
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