You can graduate from college without credit card debt by following six easy rules. Among the 46.1% of respondents who have credit card debt, 27% say their credit card debt exceeds $2,000. Here are the findings:
According to the Education Data Initiative, a bachelor's degree at a public university costs the average student around $32,880 in loans. When you leave school with debt from student loans and credit cards, it can be hard to start out in the real world. People with credit card debt often don't know how credit works.
Students often have the wrong ideas about credit.
People who took the survey were asked a series of questions to find out how much they knew about credit. They did well in some ways.
When asked what would happen if they paid their credit card bill late, 62.3% said they would have to pay a late fee. And almost 48% know that the longer they wait to pay their credit card bill, the more it will hurt their credit.
But the people who answered also didn't know much about other important things about credit. When asked what a credit score is based on, only 20.8% of people get the right answer, which is the risk that you won't pay back a loan.
The nearly 23% who acknowledge they don't know is actually an encouraging sign. Credit isn't intuitive, and if you can recognize that you don't know how it works, you're open to learning more about it.
According to the Education Data Initiative, a bachelor's degree at a public university costs the average student around $32,880 in loans. When you leave school with debt from student loans and credit cards, it can be hard to start out in the real world. People with credit card debt often don't know how credit works.
Students often have the wrong ideas about credit.
People who took the survey were asked a series of questions to find out how much they knew about credit. They did well in some ways.
When asked what would happen if they paid their credit card bill late, 62.3% said they would have to pay a late fee. And almost 48% know that the longer they wait to pay their credit card bill, the more it will hurt their credit.
But the people who answered also didn't know much about other important things about credit. When asked what a credit score is based on, only 20.8% of people get the right answer, which is the risk that you won't pay back a loan.
The nearly 23% who acknowledge they don't know is actually an encouraging sign. Credit isn't intuitive, and if you can recognize that you don't know how it works, you're open to learning more about it.