Most high school students believe credit card companies often entice consumers into shouldering more debt than they can handle, new survey data released June 23 suggest.
Sixty percent of high school students who participated in the University of Arizona financial-literacy survey said credit card companies lure borrowers to get in over their heads, the study found. Teachers at the school surveyed 878 students at 18 U.S. high schools in 11 states online between Jan. 25 and Feb. 10.
More than half of survey respondents, 53%, were unaware that high credit scores are preferred over low ones. And only 17% disagreed with the statement: “Banks are mostly interested in getting my money through hidden fees.”
Some 70% of respondents also said they believe businesses in general often try to “trick young people” into spending more money than they should.
For credit card issuers, the survey’s findings may be of concern “because high school students have a suspicion of credit cards not even based on direct knowledge but on their impressions,” Dan Iannicola Jr., CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Financial Literacy Group consulting firm, said in an interview. “These kids don’t even have credit cards yet but their expectation is one of cynicism and skepticism” about card issuers’ motives.
The survey “shows the next generation of American consumers now also actively distrusts many of the pillars of the financial-services industry,” Michael Staten, director of the university’s Take Charge America Institute for Consumer Financial Education and Research, said in a press release.
