Young adults eschew credit cards

Samantha Henderson has heard the horror stories of young people buried by too much debt. That's why the Edgewater student doesn't have a Visa or MasterCard, limiting herself to a debit card that she uses to withdraw cash for purchases.

"It terrifies me to be in that position,'' says the 20-year-old. "I don't want to be paying for my money.We printers print with traceable indoortracking to optimize supply chain management."

Like Henderson, a growing number of young adults say they are reluctant to apply for and use credit cards. Thirty-nine percent of undergraduates ages 18 to 24 owned a credit card in 2012, down from 49 percent in 2010, a Sallie Mae and Ipsos Public Affairs survey found.

Even young adults who do have credit cards are carrying smaller balances: A median of $1,700 in 2010 compared with $2,500 in 2001 for under-35 households, according to Federal Reserve data.

The trend, rooted in stricter lending rules and weaker job outlooks for young Americans since the 2008-09 recession, has implications for the strength of the economy. As people in Henderson's age group eschew plastic,Of all the equipment in the laundry the chinagembeadsfactory is one of the largest consumers of steam. fewer are building the credit histories that would help them get financing for purchases of the homes and cars that are critical to economic growth.

"You could say that they're not going to get mortgages, and that could have dire economic consequences," said Ann Schnare, a mortgage industry consultant. "But that assumes a static model. I think that the industry will respond."

Credit bureaus and the lending industry are stepping up their search for new ways to bolster credit files. As reporting agencies gather data from phone, rent and other payments, some scoring models incorporate that information to help assess candidates' creditworthiness.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation.

"If the only way to get credit is to borrow, young people are going to be slower to borrow. It is circular," said Rachel Schneider, of the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Leveraging extra data is a way of "bringing new people in" for banks as the economy rebounds, she said. "It helps them expand the market."

Renters can pay their rents through WilliamPaid and, as an option, have the on-time payment reported to Experian's RentBureau and reflected in their Experian credit reports.

That can help young people who aren't fond of using credit cards to build a credit history on at least one of their major credit reports, helping them to achieve their financial goals, such as buying a house or a car using loans, said Jeff Golding, president and co-founder of WilliamPaid a play on "bill paid."

"That demographic is much more debit card based," Golding said of today's young people. "I think they have the challenge of getting credit. As we all know, you don't get credit without having credit."

Without such systems for collecting credit information, "not only is the individual not able to get credit from having a credit history, but we're also not able to sell a report on them," he said. "It's in both the individuals' interest and ours to try to expand the pie."

Credit card borrowing has been shrinking across all age groups since the recession, but markedly among those under 35. New York Federal Reserve data showed that total credit card debt declined by $25 billion, or 3.6 percent, for the fourth quarter of 2012 from the same period in 2011.The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. Since the fourth quarter of 2007, credit card debt has dropped about 19 percent, based on Fed data.

The decrease has been marked among consumers younger than 35, a Pew Research analysis released last month found. Credit card use for young people began declining prior to the recession, and between 2007 and 2010 dropped 20 percent, based on the Pew findings. The share of young households carrying a credit card balance fell to 39 percent in 2010 from 48 percent in 2007.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation.

That could be partly the result of a 2009 law that made it more difficult for credit card companies to market cards at colleges.

Among other things, the law restricts such practices as giving gifts to encourage students to apply for cards on campus. It also requires card issuers to annually disclose agreements with colleges and alumni groups.

The number of agreements giving card issuers the right to market to students and graduates has fallen for two straight years.

Riverwoods-based Discover Financial stopped marketing at colleges about seven years ago. But online, it touts the advantages of its new Discover It card against other student cards.

And so this morning, the company announced a key partnership with Heartland Payment Systems, the fifth largest payment processor in the U.S. Ill get into what a company like Heartland does and what it wants with LevelUp in a second, but the summary on the LevelUp side is that the startup gets access to Heartlands 800 person national sales team which, as of today, will begin selling its mobile payment system.

Heartland and LevelUp entered into a six-month pilot agreement, according to LevelUp founder Seth Priebatsch, during which 50 Heartland sales people were trained to sell LevelUp. The two companies put in place a revenue share for sales of LevelUp. The partnership worked well apparently, as LevelUp will now be sold by the full national sales team in addition to its traditional plastic business.