Students may want to think twice the next time they tell a cashier to "charge it."

Credit card debt among college students is on the rise, according to financial experts.

Rob Baer, a credit counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Greater Milwaukee, attributes the growing amount of credit card debt among college students to the fact that "credit cards are so easy to get."

Jen Cheung, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration, said she has two credit cards in her name and received her first one when she was a freshman.

"I usually just charge everything," Cheung said.

"I usually pay it off," said Ryan Weiss, referring to his credit card bills.

Weiss, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, said he has three credit cards in his wallet and has had credit cards since he was 18.

According to a survey conducted in 2001 by Nellie Mae, the United States' largest non-profit provider of parent and student education loan funds, students double their average credit card debt and triple the number of credit cards in their wallets from the time they enter college to the time they graduate.

Baer said a general lack of understanding on how credit card debt can accumulate and the heavy burdens it can impose leads to increased debt among college students.

"I charge a lot but I always pay it off before it's due," said Chris Kadera, a senior in the College of Engineering.

Kim Gerth, assistant manager at the CitiFinancial bank, 4881 South 27th St., said what leads students into credit debt is not necessarily a lack of education on the subject, but rather the fact that more people are not working during school.

Gerth said when students realize they are in serious trouble with debt, they often seek bank loans to pay off their credit card bills. She said after they use the bank loan to pay off their credit card bills, they start racking up high credit bills again.

The company is conducting a follow-up study to its 2001 Credit Card Usage Analysis of Undergraduate Students in which it found that 83 percent of undergraduate students have at least one credit card in their possession.

The number represents a 24 percent increase from 1998, when 67 percent of undergraduate students had at least one credit card, according to the study.

Results from the current study are expected to be available next spring, according to Marie O'Malley, vice president of marketing for Nellie Mae.

Of students who have credit cards, 47 percent of them have four or more different cards in their wallets, the study found. On average, the number of credit cards found in the possession of undergraduate students is 4.25, the analysis found.

Nellie Mae's 2001 analysis found the average balance among college students who have cards is down 15 percent from 2000 to $2,327. The study said 21 percent of undergraduates who have credit cards carry balances between $3,000 and $7,000, an increase of 61 percent from 2000.

The Nellie Mae study also found that Midwesterners carry the highest average credit card balances.