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McMaster University’s campus came back to life today, as hundreds of students flocked for fall orientation also known as Frosh Week. This is also a time when students sign up for the first credit card.

Credit cards give students instant access to funds, but they may not understand all the fine print, like the interest rate on their card. While most of the students we spoke to say their cautious with their credit cards, finance experts say many graduate with a ton of debt.

“There’s lots of horror stories out there, some students run up $7000 in credit card debt during university.” David Schurman, FirstOntario Credit Union.

For credit card companies, students are a prime target.
“If a student is paying to go to school, they know they are going to graduate, and the financial institution will have them for life.”

Students say they feel like their being enticed to commit to something they don’t really need but finance experts say it doesn’t have to be,
“Get a no fee card, don’t carry a balance on it, and make sure you’re very careful on these purchases.”

If you only pay the minimum monthly payment on a thousand dollar balance, it would take more than 10 years to pay that credit card off and the interest would nearly double the original balance.