In recent years, the dramatic growt

In recent years, the dramatic growth in credit card usage among college
students has generated concern that students' credit card hehavior is putting
them at greater risk for high debt levels and misuse and/or mismanagement
of credit after graduation. Rising college costs and the recent economic
slowdown have intensified these concerns.
Several recent studies have attempted to determine whether college students
are in fact incurring excessive amounts of credit card dehl (Allen
and Jover 1997; Armstrong and Craven 1993; Baum and O'Malley 2003;
The Education Resources Institute and the Institute for Higher Education
Policy 1998; Hayhoe 2002; Hayhoe, Leach, and Turner 1999; Hayhoe,
Leach, Turner. Bruin, and Lawrence 2000; Lyons and Andersen 2002;
Joo, Grable. and Bagwell 2001; Staten and Barron 2002; U.S. General
Accounting Office 2001; Xiao, Noring. and Anderson 1995). These studies
examine students' use of credit including: credit card ownership, the
amount of credit card deht incurred, the types of credit cards held, and students'
attitudes towards credit usage.
In general, these studies find that while the majority of college students
now have credit cards, they appear to he using them responsibly and are not
Angela C. Lyons is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign {anglyons@uiuc.edu). The author gratefully
acknowledges ihe assistance and support of Orlo Austin, the Director of the Oftice of Financial Aid,
and Patricia Andersen. The author also thanks Dorothy Bagwell. Celia Rae Hayhoe. Robert Weagley,
and Tanse! Yilmazer for their invaluable comments and support. An earlier version of this paper was
presented at the 2003 Annual Conference of the American Council on Consumer Interests.