Students come to college to get an education, have fun, find friends and build lifelong relationships.

That doesn’t include burying themselves under mountains of debt.

“The main pitfall is, in college, you have students who get several credit cards,” said Chris Burk, a credit counselor with Housing and Credit Counseling Inc., which has an office in Lawrence. “They get so many offers, and they get something for free with every offer. Then they get out of hand with it, and they can’t even afford the minimum (monthly) payments. It just snowballs.”

But such an avalanche of debt isn’t inevitable, credit counselors say, as long as students educate themselves about credit and take a disciplined approach to spending on campus.

Housing and Credit Counseling’s Lawrence office, in the United Way Center at 2518 Ridge Court, offers counseling for KU students and others struggling with credit problems. For a one-time fee of $25 — a fee that can be waived if certain income conditions are met — a person can take advantage of services that include:

• Budget counseling.
• Negotiations with creditors, to help set up repayment plans.
• Credit report counseling, which includes reviewing a client’s credit report and offering suggestions for repairing or improving a credit score.

But students don’t always need a professional to avoid the traps of overextended credit, Burk said. Among his suggestions:

• Limit your options. “Don’t get a bunch of cards — one or two at most,” Burk said. “That’s all you need.”
• Pay it off. It sounds simple, Burk said, but that’s the simplest way: “The best thing you can do is pay off the balance in full every month. If you find that you can’t pay the full balance, you need to try to at least pay more than the minimum payments. The companies set the minimum payments so low that they barely pay the interest,” and you can’t climb out of debt without cutting into the principal.
• Be strong. “There are good uses of credit cards,” Burk said. “It can build your credit report and your credit rating, but you need to stay disciplined. You need to use it for one or two items, and pay off the balance every month.”
• Build one block at a time. “I tell a lot of students to have one credit card, and put all of your gas for your vehicles on that credit card. You get one bill, you write one check a month, there’s no balance, you’re not paying interest and you’re building your credit rating.”
• Avoid group rates. If you’re going out with friends, Burk said, don’t get caught putting everyone’s meals or drinks or other items on your card — unless you collect enough cash from everyone to cover the other meals, and then you’re disciplined enough to save the money to cover the inevitable credit bill. “If you don’t, then three or four months later you’re still paying off that pizza and whatever you had at that restaurant,” Burk said. “I sure hope it was a good meal. The best way to avoid that is just to pay cash.”
• Don’t be afraid. If you get behind and miss a monthly payment, Burk said, don’t hesitate to call your credit card company directly. And soon. “Try to work it out immediately,” he said. “If they see you’ve only missed one payment, and only one, maybe they’ll waive the late fee. … Ask them to do it, stay in touch and you can stay in good graces with them.”