A brief report issued on Friday by the American Council on Education highlights data on college students’ use of credit cards from the 2003-4 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. The report notes that more than half of undergraduates who are dependents had a credit card, and nearly a quarter of them did not pay off their bill in full every month, leaving a median monthly debt of $1,000. The report suggests that some students are using their credit cards to “augment what they had borrowed through student loan programs.”

The data differ slightly from a report issued last year by Nellie Mae, a provider of student loans (The Chronicle, May 26, 2005). But the ACE report confirms some of the concerns raised five years ago in a report prepared for the U.S. Congress (The Chronicle, July 19, 2001).