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by Kenny Chee
NANYANG Technological University (NTU) student Zachary Lee goes through his finances thoroughly every month.
He sets himself a monthly budget and sticks to it as religiously as he can.
Every day, the 21-year-old accounting undergraduate will update his expenses on a spreadsheet to check if he is still within his monthly budget.
If he has overspent, he would try to cut down on his spending the next month.
"It's important to know how to manage your credit. And it's a good time to learn this in university so that you don't overspend when you start working," he said.
Mr Lee is one of few young and educated Singaporeans who know about managing their credit.
A survey released yesterday showed that only about two in 10 tertiary students know what a credit report is.
The survey of 600 students aged 18 to 25 years from 10 tertiary institutions was done by final- year NTU students.
These results come on the back of a trend of more young Singaporeans applying for credit cards.
An increasing number of young adults signing up for credit cards makes it all the more pressing for them to be educated about the responsibilities that come with spending on credit.
According to the Credit Bureau (Singapore), there was a 39 per cent rise in credit-card sign-ups by adults aged 21 to 29 years from August 2007 to July last year.
The NTU study said the findings show that there is a growing need to educate young Singaporeans about responsible credit management.
Meeting this call, the final-year NTU students who did the survey started a nationwide campaign last November to educate tertiary students about credit.
Citibank, which had approached NTU with the objective of improving the credit literacy of tertiary students, provided nearly $30,000 to cover production costs incurred in the campaign.
Staff from the bank also met the NTU students weekly to mentor them and review the materials the students produced for the campaign.
The campaign went beyond talks held at various tertiary institutions. There were also video competitions and promotions through blogs and networking sites like Facebook, after the survey also found that the students were Internet-savvy.
The campaign ends this Saturday with a party at Zouk.
kennyc@sph.com.sg
- With additional reporting by Chen Jingting
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