Report finds student credit card debt exploding

BDlive 06 July 2013

Student debt is exploding amid revelations that South African university students can legally acquire credit cards as long as they can prove that they receive a steady income of as little as R200 (US$20) a month from a parent or a guardian, writes Colleen Goko for BDlive.

A recent youth spending report by Student Village and the University of South Africa found that student debt had more than doubled in the past three years, with 43% of students in the 2012 survey admitting to owning a credit card, compared to 9.5% in 2010.

The survey of 1,220 students from four major metropolitan universities revealed that 77% of the participants received their income from parents or guardians. Banking giant ABSA’s retail banking head Arrie Rautenbach told Business Day that the number of new accounts opened by the bank for consumers in the 18-24 age range had doubled since 2010. However, "credit card customers in that age range make up less than 1% of total credit card lending".
Full report on the BDlive site

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