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According to Britannica.com, since the invention of the credit card in 1950, people have been spending money they don’t have all around the world. This is especially true for college students who need to make a purchase without having the cash with them at the moment, or even at all.   

“I have four credit cards,” said Adriana Rodriguez, a senior at Grand View. “I got my first when I was 15.”

Like many young adults, most credit card owners in college know little to nothing about the way they work. Many have no idea how much they should pay off each month.  

“I don’t know much about it, but I know I pay the minimum payment each month,” senior Parfait Muhoza said.  

According to Bankrate.com, the average credit card interest rate is around 17 percent. This means that those who pay the minimum payment each month get that percent added on to their total. With this logic, if you begin with $1,000 in credit card debt, it would take you around three and a half years to pay off just that amount if you paid only the minimums. It would also end up costing you a total of $6,000.  

“I paid the minimum payment at first and then realized you’re never going to pay it off by doing that,” said Marvin Gutierrez, a junior at GV.  

Many students had no idea how their own credit cards even work.  

“No one really explained credit cards to me,” Muhoza said. 

He is not alone in this. The topic of credit card debt and unknown interest is looked over for a lot of college students who are the target for these credit card companies.  

“I got a credit card right after high school to get a new pair of shoes,” Gutierrez said.  

The average debt balance for a college student in 2013 was $500, according to Nasdaq.com. And this number only increases as the years go by. The total amount owed in credit card debt by American consumers has surpassed $850 billion, according to debt.com.  

Only a few college students are lucky enough to be informed about credit debt at this age. Betty Anderson, an administrative coordinator at Grand View, shared her remarks about her history with credit cards. 

“I got one right when I was in college to establish a credit rating,” Anderson said. “I did not know the ins and outs of that but I knew I wasn’t going to use it much, only to establish credit. I never had issues with paying off my credit card; I paid it off in full each month.” 

As more and more college students begin to use credit cards, the amount of debt is said to rise even higher. The ways Grand View students can combat that statistic is by becoming aware and informed of the risks that a credit card can have on a person. For now, credit card companies can only hope for the opposite outcome.