In this article we are going to look most specifically at credit cards statistics for college students.  In general you will discover that the credit card statistics around the world are definitely different.  In the US there are more than 5 billion individuals in debt with credit card companies.  There are over 40 million individuals that have credit cards.  The UK is one of the largest countries with credit cards and credit card debt.  They have such high numbers the companies are beginning to take away some of the offerings with credit cards like the introductory rates.  They are also closing a lot of credit card accounts to help make it more feasible for the company to make money.  They are closing high risk cards or cards that have not been used in a year.  Other parts of the world are soon going to be in the same statistical place as the US and UK.  This is because more and more credit card companies are trying to move into Europe, Asia, Middle East, and South America.

Now that we have looked at a few statistics for all credit cards and know that the UK has one of the highest debts for credit cards let’s look at some colleges.

The national average for the charge off rates is 5.8% of receivables regarding college student credit cards.  The charge off rate is the rate at which the college students need to have their debts taken care of.  This means they have incurred such a high debt on their cards they are not able to pay the debt, and have asked the companies to offer a deal in which they can just make the debt go away.

UCMS has a rate average of 2.18% in the charge offs for the receivables.  This rate as you can see is lower than the national average, but still rather high, meaning they have a lot of students that find they are not able to handle the debt.

For college student credit cards the average balance owed is 885 dollars.  This average compared to most adults is very low, but that is usually because the credit limits for the college student cards are lower than those of the adults.  In other words most can only get cards for 1000 to 1500 dollar credit limits and that is usually after having the card for a year or two.  Next, students that pay a hundred percent of their bill and continue to have a zero balance is actually 55 percent.  This is a great statistical number.  Most adults who pay off their cards with a zero balance are in the 26 % to 40% range.

There are only 17% of college students without credit cards.  Most of the college students with credit cards have an account with their parent’s card that average is 45%.  It means they are additional card holders rather than having their own account.  As you can see there is a wide range of credit card statistics to go with the college students and these statistics are rather favorable.

Is there a credit card to help you with poor credit history?  In most articles we look at the cards that exist to try and find you something that the company is willing to offer you.  In this article we are going to concentrate more on how getting a credit card can help you if your history is poor.  There are numerous ways you may have wound up with a poor credit history.  Maybe as a younger adult you didn’t realize how much credit cards could really cost you and you started to slip.  Perhaps you have been out of a job in the past and this made it difficult to pay bills.  The fact is there are several reasons a person may have landed in poor credit history.  As long as you have recognized where you sit and stopped it before bankruptcy you should be fine.  Of course if you did have a bankruptcy you can still get a credit card for poor credit history.  Obviously if you are in the poor area after a bankruptcy it is either an older arrears or you had a minor incident.  So let’s look at how credit cards and poor credit history mix.

To re-establish credit for a better financial future you have to find someone that is willing to offer you are credit card or line of credit.  If you are in the poor credit mark the easiest line of credit is going to be that credit card.  There are several companies like First Premier, Orchards, Chase, Capital One, and Virgin that offer credit cards poor credit history options. 

You need to be wise in your selection of the credit card.  Yes, you want something that is guaranteed acceptance and easy credit; however there are still choices in prepaid, annual fees, and standard cards.  While you may have to have a higher interest rate for no annual fee if you use the card appropriately this will not matter.  The idea is not to use the card as a crutch.  You need to instead use the card to your advantage.  This means you pay off any balance on the card every month to avoid the interest fees.  You should also use the card once a month for small purchases.  The idea is to use the card for an amount you know you can pay off before the statement rolls in.  This saves you the very high interest rate and of course money.  The good thing about this is that you are also increasing your credit history points.  The more you use the card the better, and as long as you pay it off the better standing you are going to have.  The card companies report to the bureaus often they also check your report often.  So you want to make sure you are not getting points deducted by other means while you are trying to build them up.

With credit cards for poor credit history you need to be observant and make the card work for you.