Credit Scores as Important to Teens as SATs

By Scott Horsley

Published May 19, 2006 at 5:17 PM EDT

By the time they turn 18, about one in five high school students already has a credit card. And they're not shy about using it. Credit card debt among young people roughly doubled during the 1990s. And so did the number of 18- to 24-year-olds filing bankruptcy.

Federal bankruptcy Judge John Hargrove got tired of seeing bankruptcy filings from such young debtors. So he's giving high school students in San Diego, Calif., a crash course in using credit wisely. Hargrove's program is called CARE, which stands for "Credit Abuse Resistance Education."

"It's not bad to have a credit card. It's just wise to know what you're doing," says bankruptcy attorney Jeffrey Schreiber, who participated in a recent CARE presentation along with Hargrove.

Below is a quiz Hargrove uses in the program.

Scott Horsley

Scott Horsley is NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent. He reports on ups and downs in the national economy as well as fault lines between booming and busting communities.

See stories by Scott Horsley

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