Fort Lauderdale, Florida - The average undergraduate has $2,200 in credit card debt, according to Nellie Mae, the nation's largest maker of student loans. That figure jumps to $5,800 for graduate students. Since so many student credit cards have high annual percentage rates, the longer these students wait to pay the cards off, the worse it gets. If they just pay the minimum payments

it would take a student more than 12 years and $1,115 in interest to pay off a $1,000 balance on a credit card with an 18 percent annual rate. Interest rates increase if students fall behind on the debt, which in turn makes it more unlikely that the student can repay their debt.

A New Horizon Credit Counseling has a solution with their Financial Wellness Plan that will assist students to restructure their debt based on their income and other factors. We can assist the human resource dept and guidance counselors to help these students who have credit card debt. Many of these students don’t know where to turn to for help. Our nationally recognized Financial Literacy Program offers an array of courses on budgeting, using credit wisely, and savings strategies for debt challenged consumers.