 Take
my card, PLEASE!
Students grapple with mounting credit card
payments, debt
BY BECKY RASMUSSEN
MESA LEGEND
Submitted December 12, 2000
"Want a free T-shirt?" "Take a minute to fill out this
application, and we’ll put your name in a drawing for a new car!"
"Sign-up here and get a free 10-minute calling card!"
Heard these pledges lately? They spill out of the mouths of approximately
1,200 credit card vendors who promote their products on college campuses
across America every single day.
What they aren’t telling students is that their cards have high
interest rates. They also fail to warn about the spider webs of neverending
debt if the card is not properly used.
"I got my first credit card before I even graduated from high school,"
MCC student Sara Caddy said. "They offered me a great introductory
interest rate and I just couldn’t pass it up."
Caddy is now working full-time and taking classes part-time in order
to pay off her credit card debt. "Credit cards suck," Caddy
said. "Their interest rates are high and then they up your limit,
almost intentionally to get you in trouble."
For these reasons Johnice Wilkins, director of student leadership, closely
monitors the vendors that come onto MCC’s campus. "I don’t
want to see students get into debt," Wilkins said. "We try to
create a system of checks and balances to make sure that the students
and staff are not taken advantage of."
Wilkins came up with "Vendor Day." Occurring only once every
semester, the event allows vendors who want to solicit their products
to students to come on campus.
With Vendor Day, Wilkins is planning on bringing a speaker on campus
to educate staff and students on interest rates, budgeting and debt.
Stan Buzzelle, executive director for Scottsdale’s American Family
Credit Counseling, spends his days counseling people on budgeting, keeping
a checkbook and giving financial advice. "The worst case I have ever
seen was a 20-year-old girl who had taken out several credit cards and
began getting cash advances on a few of her cards to pay off others.
"She ended up being $20,000 in debt. She got lucky, her grandmother
bailed her out by paying off her debt," Buzzelle said.
 "But
instead of getting rid of the cards, she kept them. And because she paid
her previous debt off so quickly the bank raised her credit limit. Before
she knew it she was in debt $30,000, and this time, grandma was not going
to bail her out.
"She brought her to us."
American Family set her up on a payment plan, and after five years she
is almost finished paying off her debt. Without this program, paying only
the minimum payment on a card with 20-percent interest would have taken
her 25 years to be clear of debt.
"The number of young people with credit cards is out of hand. They
lack experience in handling money, budgeting, and there is a severe lack
of income for many students’ expensive lifestyles," Buzzelle
said.
Caddy, who is also employed at Abercrombie & Fitch, said "I
see young people come in everyday and charge more than $100 on their cards.
"That’s all people use."
"The number one rule in borrowing money is to be able to repay the
amount borrowed in a short period of time," Buzzelle said, "especially
during the holiday season. It becomes easier to spend than it is to pay."
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