College students face debt.

When we turn eighteen, we become excited about the independence we receive, along with the right to vote and privilege to buy cigarettes. We don’t realize the amount of letters filling our mail boxes from major credit cards companies who target young, naive college students, peer pressuring them to sign up for credit cards with high interest rates.

Students are facing major credit card debt and cannot pay the full amount of their debts, barely making ends meet by only being able to pay the minimum amount that is required from the credit card companies every month.

The average undergraduate has over $2,200 in credit card debt. Grad students have a credit card debt of about $5,800. Many college students remain in debt with thousands of dollars piled onto high interest credit cards.

The average student loan debt of students for a public, four-year university is around $26,119. For a student attending a private four-year university is about $29,000.

Statistics show that two out of five students will have bad credit by the time they reach the age of thirty.

Gerri Detweiler, an education advisor for debt counseling of America stated that more than 75 percent of undergraduates begin their college school year with a credit card with high interest and that students are clueless as to the mess they are getting themselves into.

“These students exceed their credit limit and don’t make payments. They’re slammed with over-limit and late fees. The longer these youngsters wait to pay their cards off, the worse it gets.”

She also said that credit card companies with high interest rates will not work with their clients: their only interest is to get their mony.

Millions of college students across the nation acquire credit cards each fall as the semester begins, but don’t have a good understanding of how they work.

Fresno City College student Carol Castillo said that she feels that the credit cards companies tricked her into a credit card with hidden interest rates and other fees not made clear by the credit card company.

“Well, now I am in trouble and owe over $3,000 and am facing major credit card debt” Castillo said.

A statistics poll showed that over 80 percent of students feel that they were lured into bad credit card deals as a result of wanting quick money to afford many, if not all, of the expenses that are associated with obtaining an education.

A third year student that did not want to be identified stated that she was over $15,000 in debt. With a car payment, school, bills and a baby on the way, she has dug a hole with major debt.

“I do not have a job and I have a baby on the way. It is really stressful because my financial income is Cal-works and financial aid. I really don’t know what I am going to do with my baby when it is born in July.”

She said that she got her first credit card when she was seventeen years old from her mother. At first, she knew how to manage her money, but when she got laid off she did not know how to pay it off.

The credit bills started to increase in interest fees, and after a few months, she couldn’t pay it anymore. Now, she gets creditors calling her every day.

“I think that if I can go and do it all over again, I would have not gotten pregnant, and definitely not taken a credit card”

Stressed FCC students on campus have said they regret ever having to get a credit card. Many said that they never read the small print in the contracts.

Many college students get credit cards and don’t know how to use them.

College students are facing debt and digging themselves into a hole that they can not get themselves out of. We need to get college students informed about the consequences related to failure to pay credit cards and how to repair their credit.