adminBased on a recent survey, college students in the U.S. will leave the halls of higher education none-the-wiser about responsible credit card use. LendEDU, a marketplace for student loans and loan refinance, conducted the April survey at three, four-year universities.
Researchers learned that while 38.5 percent of students polled currently have a credit card, many are unaware of the interest rates and late payment charges those cards carry.
Of those students with credit cards, only 9.4 percent said they knew the current interest rates on their credit cards; only 20.6 percent knew the late payment charges on their credit cards; and 58.9 percent knew the balance limits on their credit cards.
Only 28.9 percent knew the over-balance fees charged on their credit cards; 67.8 percent had a credit card balance; and 93.3 percent said they knew the size of their current credit card balance within $100. LendEDU surveyed more than 460 undergraduate and graduate students — two colleges were located in the San Francisco Bay Area and the other was on the East Coast.
The survey, said Nate Matherson, co-founder and CEO of Iowa-based LendEDU, was designed to determine the financial literacy of college students.
“Credit cards are a powerful tool when used correctly,” said Matherson. “Credit cards can help young adults build credit, earn rewards, and learn financial responsibility. However, when used incorrectly, credit cards can be as crushing as high interest student loan debt.”
Read more in the CU Journal article.
