The following article on credit cards has been provided by Moneysupermarket.com

If you have been or still are a student, you will know only too well how hard it can be to make ends meet. Statistics show that the average student is leaving university with around £13,000 of debt, which may take up to 20 years to clear.

So there are bound to be times when a credit card seems like a useful way of spreading your financial debts.

If used frivolously or without the proper knowledge though, credit cards can easily put university goers and graduates alike on the road to financial ruin.

This is because more often than not, young persons are not entirely clear on what is involved in using a credit card.

For example, recent surveys have discovered that a considerable amount of young people do not understand the basics involved with using a credit card. For instance, surveys based on 16 to 21 year olds found that 2 in 5 didn’t know that “APR” stands for Annual Percentage Rate, and 1 in 4 thought store cards where better value than credit cards, when they are not.

Even so, despite some of the bad press you may have heard about credit cards, they are not all worries and debt! On the contrary, a properly selected and well-managed credit card can prove a highly valuable financial resource for most people.

That is why we have created this guide to credit cards. We hope it will answer most, if not all of the issues students and recent graduates need to know before they start applying and using their plastic friend.

Among the topics covered are:

• How your card works
• What card might suit you best?
• Tips on how to use your credit card
• Top credit card mistakes – and how to avoid them
• Common credit card terms - making sense of the gobbledegook

Continue to How your credit card works.

You can find more information and easily compare over 300 credit cards at Moneysupermarket.com for free.