Student Resources
Find College Financial Aid Online
Top 10 Financial Tips for High School and College Students
Top 10 Financial Tips for High School and College Students (Spanish Translation)
Creating A Realistic College Budget That You Can Stick To
Fantastic article that high school seniors, college freshmen and their parents should read. This is also a great resource for high school guidance counseling offices as a service and as a marketing tool to bring the CARE Program to your community.
Real Cost of Credit Handout
This statistically charged article is a great supplement to any college freshman orientation packet. Know what credit is really costing you – 18% - 20% - 24%? Every dollar spent on credit is a mortgage on future spending.
How Credit Card Companies Solicit College Students
Predatory Lending Traps (Spanish Translation of Handout)
Everyday, payday loan stores, rent-to-own centers, check cashing stores, pawnshops and tax refund-anticipation, car title and more than three-year car loan lenders are unconscionably taking millions of dollars from the poor and financial illiterate, and often pushing them over the edge to financial ruin and bankruptcy.
Where to Purchase Used School Books
Statistics
- Bankruptcy filings for those in the 18-25 year age group were at an all time high in 2000, numbering almost 150,000, which is a tenfold increase in just five years. This is the fastest growing age range for bankruptcies.
- Louisiana State University Agricultural Center
American Teenagers
- As a cohort, American Teenagers, spent over $172 billion in 2001, equal to Mexico's yearly export
- Teenage Research Unlimited, 2001 - More tan 1 in 5 youths ages 12 to 19 have their own credit cards or have access to parents' credit cards, and 14% have debit cards.
- Teenage Research Unlimited, 2001 - 40% of students are likely to buy a pair of jeans (or something similar) they really want even if they do not have the money to pay for it. 22% would pay for it with a credit card.
- ASEC (American Savings Education Council )
College Students
- 55% of college students acquire their first credit card during their first year of collge, and 83% of college students have at least one credit card.
- Senate Resolution 48, 2003 - 45% of college students are in credit card debt, the average credit card debt being $3,066.
- Senate Resolution 48, 2003 - Undergraduate students carry an average of three credit cards.
- Nellie Mae, 2002 - Graduating students have an average of $20,402 in combined educaton loan an credit card balances.
- Nellie Mae, 2002 - 20% of graduating college students have $10,000 or more in non-school related credit card debt.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2003 - 28% of students with credit card debt roll over debt each month.
- Nellie Mae, 2000 - The average undergraduate has $1,843 in credit card debt.
- Nellie Mae - Nine percent have card debt between $3,000 and $7,000.
- Nellie Mae - One-fifth (1/5) of all college students have four or more credit cards.
- Nellie Mae - Students double their average credit card debt and triple the number of credit cards in their wallets from the time they arrive on campus until graduation.
- Nellie Mae, 2002 - 43% of freshman owned a credit card, compared with %74 for 4th and 5th year students.
- American Council on Education - 41% of cardholders carried a balance from month to month, and the median amount was $1,000.
- American Council on Education - Approximately 25% of cardholders used their credit card to pay for tuition.
-American Council on Education
General Statistics
- 40% of Americans say they live beyond their means
-Fort Worth Business Press 2002 - In 1968, consumers' total credit debt was $8 billion (in current dollars). Now the total exceeds $880 billion.
- Federal Reserve Bank - If you pay off a $1,000 debt on an 18 percent card by just sending in the minimum payment each month at 2 percent, it will take more than 12 years to repay and cost you over $1,000 in interest rates.
-Bankrate.com - 40% of American families spend more than they earn.
- Federal Reserve Bank - 51% of the U.S. population has at least two credit cards
- Center for Media Research - One in six families with credit cards pays only the minimum due every month.
- American Bankers Association, Federal Reserve