U.S. college students are increasingly burdened with credit card debt, according to a study released Tuesday, and the consequences can be serious--ranging from higher drop-out rates to future employment problems and ven suicide.
Based on hundreds of face-to-face interviews and surveys with students, sociologist Robert Manning of Georgetown University concluded both the number with credit card debt and their indebtedness had been "systematically  underreported" in previous studies  which failed to reflect the "survival  strategies" many used to copewith their debts. These included the use of federal student loans to pay off credit cards, effectively shifting the debt, appeals to parents for loans, cutting backon course work to increase time at paid jobs, or even dropping out altogether to work full time. "Official drop-out rates include growing numbers of students who are unable to cope with the stress  of their debts and/or part time jobs for servicing their credit cards," the  study saiD.
Even then, debts can haunt students. "Student credit card debts are increasingly scrutinized during the recruitment process and may be an important factor in evaluating prospective. employee," it noteD. And the stress can also manifest in far more tragic ways. Janne O'Donnell's 2g-year-old son, a junior at the University of Oklahoma, committed O'Donnell and Manning agreed students  should bear some responsibility for reckless use of credit, but said credit  card companies also had to be held accountable for making it so easy for them  to get into debt. Manning said one of the most disturbing aspects of the student  credit card issue was "the seduction of college and university administrators  by the credit card industry." Card issuers were sponsoring school programs, funding activities and even entering into business partnerships with schools involving college-branded "affinity" cards, he saiD.  "As a result, rather than protecting the economic and educational interests of their students, college administrators are playing an active and often disingenuous role in promoting the prominence of credit cards in collegiate life."