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Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
College Student Journal, Sept, 2003 by So-Hyun Joo, John E. Grable, Dorothy C. Bagwell
Results
Respondents' ages ranged from 18 to 47, with a mean age of 21 years old. More than one half of the respondents were female (57%), and the majority (86.8%) were never married. About one-fifth (21.5%) of the respondents lived on campus. The remaining (64.5%) students lived in rental housing. The majority of the students were White or Caucasian (86.8%), while 6.6% of the respondents were either Hispanic or Latino. The majority of the students (71.5%) were human sciences majors; 14.9% were business majors, and 9.1% were arts and sciences majors. In terms of academic level, 15.3% of respondents were freshmen, 28.1% were sophomores, 26.4% were juniors, 26.4% were seniors, with the remainder (3.8%) being graduate students. More than one-half (56.4%) of the students were employed part-time, and 34.9% were not employed. Twenty-one students indicated that they were employed full-time.
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Table 3 shows the credit card use behaviors of the survey respondents. The majority of students (70.7%) held one or more credit cards. This figure matches the national average. More than 10% of the students possessed five or more credit cards. On average, college students received their first credit card when they were 18 years old. The survey indicated that some students obtained their first credit card as young as 15 years of age. It was also found that about one quarter (22%) of the students never keep copies of their charge slips, and they seldom check receipts against their monthly credit statement. On the other hand, almost half (49.4%) of the students paid their credit bills in full. While this seems positive, almost 10% of the students paid only the minimum payment in any given month.
The most cited reason for using a credit card was convenience. This finding indicates that these college students used credit for everyday expenses. In terms of credit card knowledge, only about one-half of the students were aware of the associated fees on credit cards. This represents both the positive and negative aspects of college students' use of credit cards. College students may not be aware of the annual percentage rate or late fees because they don't pay any interest or late fees. On the other hand, this also epitomizes carelessness in relation to credit use because lack of knowledge about these important card characteristics is not a substitute for protection in the case of incurring interest expenses or late fees. These findings are summarized in Table 3. (see table 3)
Students were also asked to indicate their attitude toward credit card usage and credit card use behavior for various expenditure categories. They were then asked to indicate their current credit card balance. Table 4 shows the findings related to attitudes toward credit card usage. When asked whether using a credit card is a good idea or a bad idea, the majority of students answered that it depends on the situation. For example, students answered that it is acceptable for college students to borrow money to finance school related items (93.3%), to cover expenses due to illness (89.5%), and to cover living expenses (74.7%). On the other hand, they thought that it is unacceptable for college students to borrow money to purchase a luxury (89.5%) or to cover the expenses of a vacation (87.5%). (See table 4)
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- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
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