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Introduction
College students may be vulnerable to the lure of easy credit that can be obtained through credit cards. The prevalence of college students in the US with credit cards ranges from 58 percent ([25] Shim et al. , 2009) to 84 percent ([24] Sallie Mae, 2009). A 2008 survey of college students in the US found that students have an average of 4.6 credit cards, with 50 percent having four or more cards ([24] Sallie Mae, 2009). Also, 39 percent of students obtain credit cards before college, while in college 36 percent obtain credit cards as college freshman and 12 percent obtain credit cards later than the freshman year ([24] Sallie Mae, 2009). A 2007 study of college students in the US found that college students engaged in risky or extreme financial behaviors. This included 72.5 percent using at least one risky financial behavior such as maxing out (i.e. through either purchases and/or cash advances) or borrowing (i.e. cash advances) from credit cards within the previous six months ([25] Shim et al. , 2009). Also, as the number of credit cards used by college students increased, there was an association with increased debt ([18] Norvilitis et al. , 2006; [5] The Education Resources Institute, 1998; [25] Shim et al. , 2009).
One possible reason why college students use credit cards and do not pay off their balance in full may be their attitudes towards credit card debt. Among college students with credit card debt, 73 percent believed that they can get out of debt in less time than the typical student and 45 percent believed that if their debt became too large their parents were likely to assist them with their debt ([18] Norvilitis et al. , 2006). Also, with regard to attitudes of college students to use credit cards to borrow money, 93.3 percent believed that it was okay to do so for school-related items, 79.5 percent for medical expenses, and 73.7 percent for living expenses ([12] Joo et al. , 2003). Not all individuals have such favorable attitudes toward debt. A study measuring attitudes towards credit debt among young adults in Quebec found them to have slightly unfavorable attitudes towards credit debt ([13] Lachance et al. , 2006).
College students' attitudes toward...