Bills, Bills, Bills
Credit Card debt Effects a Younger
Generation
by Kim Olechoski
When handing the credit card to the cashier you feel most excited. You're thinking how great this new light blue sweater will look on Friday night at the frat party. " Gosh, I hope Bobby is there!" In the back of your mind you know just how financially stable you have become. But even farther in the back of your mind is a small, annoying, flashing red light, that is shouting, DEBT, DEBT, DEBT! You know it's there yet, it is ignored.
A nationwide survey says that 69 percent of collegiate cardholders have an average of $968 in unpaid balances. Some will argue that the schools are to blame and that campuses should not allow soliciting on private property. Why should they allow their students to be tricked into this black hole of debt? Some card companies, however, are set up so that the school will benefit from student spending. Marquette University got back $10,000 from soliciting Citibank credit cards to their students. So maybe there is an upside to all of this. After all, the students are adults; they can make their own decisions. Campuses do have the right of free enterprise.
When I say debt, the meaning of the word may not really hit you as hard as it needs to. Some instances of debt are so extreme that cases of suicide have been linked to them. These people see no other way of escaping this trouble that will follow them for the rest of their life. Although, some credit cases have a lesser consequence like spoiling a student's credit report. But not only will this effect your ability to gain financial freedom in the future, but it could inhibit you from being accepted to graduate school or getting a job. And think how it all started with a cute blue sweater that you just couldn't say no to.
You will most likely be bombarded with credit card applications soon after you reach that "magical age" of 18. As a senior who is less than a month away from that day I have already received numerous applications. All with the insolent saying of "pre-approved" stricken on the envelope in bright colors. I choose to rip them up. Maybe in years I'll open one and consider letting the vultures take advantage of me. But until then, when the nice lady at the Gap asks me "paper or plastic," I'll stick with paper.