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According to a recent study, college students, despite having smaller incomes, have a similar debt pattern as adults with steady incomes.
According to CardFaq.com, the average American consumer is roughly $8,000 in debt to credit card companies. The average college-aged person owes $3,000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“People just want to buy stuff,” Becky Plummer, a senior computer science major, said. “It just depends on the type of person, not the age.”
Credit card debt is a bigger issue for college students because of the lack of a steady income. According to the 2000 National Census, the average American household makes $41,994, making it plausible for the average American to pay off part of their debt. College students only make an average annual income of under $4,000, making it much more difficult to pay off debt.
Credit card companies target college-aged students as vital to business.
Credit card mass-mailings and phone solicitations to dorm rooms have grown to become a norm at the University of Maine. Students have asked how these companies can get ahold of students’ phone numbers and addresses. Some think this information is sold to the companies for profit to the school, but Peter Reid, associate director of student records, said this isn’t so.
“No profit is made by the school through the sale of student information,” Reid said. “We may ask the company requesting the information to pay for the cost to produce such a list, but we do not profit off of this.”
Reid explained that student information is public record, unless a student has specifically called student records and requested that their information not be shared.
“We definitely don’t encourage companies to come and access this information,” Reid said. “But we can’t control who accesses it and who doesn’t.”
Reid went on to explain that this information does have practical purposes as public information in terms of jobs and graduate schools.
“If a company or a university calls us asking if someone is a student, we can say yes, unless that student has a ban on giving out their information,” Reid said.
Companies utilize other techniques as well, thus opening themselves up to the entire campus community.
Throughout the semester, students may notice tables set up in the Union. These tables are generally covered with t-shirts, CD players and other appealing items. The purpose of these tables is not to give out free items, however, but to get students to sign up for a credit card.
Student groups can utilize these tables for free, but outside groups, which include credit card companies, must pay $200 per day for use.
According to Margaret Baker, an administrative assistant for the Union, this money goes into a programming account. This account can be used for the purchase of various things that benefit the Union, such as the new table skirts for the vendor tables.
Eighty percent of all college students have a credit card, but debt does not have to be an issue, according to CardFaq.com. Credit card holders knowing their limits and mapping out a payment plan ahead of time can help save thousands of dollars.
Bangor Daily News