WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Classes at many Florida universities begin next week and that means many college freshman will be applying for their very first credit cards, leading credit repair specialists to issue a warning.
When you step foot on Florida Atlantic University’s campus, you’ll find freshman who are preparing for school to start next week.
For many of them, they’ll be navigating life, and their finances, away from home for the first time.
Harry Leiber is one of them.
“I would probably try to get ahead of my payments,” Leiber said. “Try to limit my food expenses as well as my living expenses.”
Older students, like Gabrielle Keymist, who is a junior this year, told WPTV that she feels students have to have a plan, because credit card debt is easy to rack up while you’re in school.
“It actually happened to me,” Keymist said. “I basically left my job and I thought I had enough saved but I didn’t and I had to start using credit cards.”
A 2021 study from College Finance found that 96% of college students in the U.S. have some form of debt and the average student has roughly $3,280 in credit card debt.
“I defaulted on my first Amex credit card that I got when I was 18 years old, because of my love for pizza,” Paul Oster, a credit repair specialist with Better Qualified, said. “They literally set up on college campuses and offer you a free pizza if you applied for the credit card.”
Oster told WPTV that’s why he thinks those numbers are so high.
“Credit cards are unfortunately a necessary evil,” Oster said, “especially for young people, because they’re away from home for the first time.”
Oster said his best piece of advice is to give yourself a credit limit far under what you’re approved for.
“Let’s say you get approved for a $5,000 credit limit, that should not be the target, right,” Oster said. “You should be at about 10% of that overall spending limit.”
He also suggests avoiding “too good to be true” offers from credit card companies, applying for a card with the lowest interest rate you can find and setting a goal to pay off your balance each month.
“That’s a great way to start to realize, I can use credit cards,” Oster said. “I can help build my credit but I have to pay it off.”
“That’s one thing that I try to stay ahead of the curve and learn from a young age,” Leiber said.
