Robyn Beck looks back on her college years with a mixture of pride and regret.
“What I enjoyed of our college is that I was able to walk away with it – with a degree, end up find a job, but what I regret most is, you know, getting a credit card, racking it up, and getting multiple credit cards and doing the same thing, so because now I have to deal with it now and I am paying it off now, and it is kind of, hard to do it.”
Robyn graduated with a degree in fine arts and nearly $7,000 in high-interest credit card debt. paying off those cards cost her nearly 20% of her take-home salary every month.
Robyn says:
“Things that are charged on my credit card in college were the spring-break vacations, going out to eat with friends, you know, numerous times. Other things were like materialistic things like clothes, accessories, make-up, all like that in trend to keep up with everyone else. How I like to do those things now, you know? Now I can’t have those things. I have to do with, you know, what I have got, and wait until my shoes are falling apart – well, falling apart new and, such as I can’t do all the things that I enjoyed in college because I enjoyed them in college. I guess when I was making the purchases in college with my credit card saying I would like them to pay that off later. I figured I would be making more money than what I was given through financial aid and through my parents. And whether you are aware or not, I mean, you have to compensate for other things like tax being taken out of your salary, groceries, gases, and things I did not need to think about. It is not parents always paid it. All those little things, they will add up.”
Robyn is not alone – 21% of college students graduate with $7,000 in credit card debts. Credit cards are easy to get. 83% of college students have at least one, and many students turn to credit cards to finance their wants like clothes, entertainment, and trips.
Cynthia Mayberry, TG, says:
“Let us say you have a $2,000 credit card. If you just pay the minimum amount each month, it is going to take about 8 years to pay off that debt. A better plan would be to get a part-time job to pay for the things that you want, and a low-interest education loan. But have you covered the costs of tuition, books, and housing?”
It is a financial lesson, Robyn says, that she never got in college. That one she is learning, now that she is paying her own bills.
Robyn says":
“I heard this phrase, you know, if you will live like a professional while in college and live like a student when you get out. If I did live like a professional, now that I have been having the experience, I have noticed I have lived an extravagant lifestyle in college when I should be living it now, when I have a job and at the door. I think of it this way – I could be making a car payment for what I am having for in credit cards!”