As a student, you will have to decide for yourself if you can handle the responsibility of a credit card. They are easy to get but not so easy to manage, especially if you end up with a high, unpaid balance on which interest is accruing, but payments are not being made. According to the PIRG study, of the 79 percent of surveyed students who use credit cards for multiple purposes, only 13 percent reported limiting credit card use to emergencies.

Credit cards can be helpful in emergencies or if you are able to pay off the balance each month, but be wary! Credit cards can also get you into trouble. Here are some helpful hints on using credit cards

Pay your credit card bills on time.If possible, pay off your balance in full each month. If you can't pay off your balance in full, then slow down on your credit card use for the next while.Check your statement carefully each month. Transfer your balance to a card with a lower interest rate.Negotiate for a lower rate with your credit card company.

With all the choices in cards available, chances are good,very good, you can find a better card for your needs. Today's cards can save you money, offer better features, and even support a cause you believe in. Here are some tips on finding the right card and where to check that you have the best card for your needs.

Ballpark budget benchmarks Here are some common benchmark figures to keep in mind when setting and reviewing your budget.: Your housing costs shouldn't exceed more than 30 percent of net income. Transportation costs should be approximately 15 percent. Food should be about 16 percent of your total budget. You should try and keep utilities around 5 percent. Another 5 percent should go toward unsecured debt, such as credit cards. Personal and miscellaneous items should amount to the remaining 29 percent.

Was 2007 a bad year for you and credit card debt? CreditCards.com recommends paying attention to the fine print on credit card contracts, comparing credit card rates and protecting your identity in the coming year. Here are some easy and not-so-easy steps to take.

Subprime credit cards are issued to customers with bad credit or no credit history. They are sometimes referred to as "fee harvester cards" in the credit card industry. These cards typically carry low credit limits of $250 to $500 and are designed to help cardholders launch or re-establish payment histories.

The proposed Regulation Z revisions cover two different kinds of disclosures designed to warn consumers who make the minimum payments on their accounts. Paying only the minimum amount each month lengthens the amount of time credit cardholders can take to pay off their debts -- and increases the amount of interest creditors earn from accountholders. The Fed proposes alerting consumers on monthly (periodic) statements about the consequences of minimum payments. The proposal requires credit card issuers to: "provide (1) a 'warning' statement indicating that making only the minimum payment will increase the interest the consumer pays and the time it takes to repay the consumer's balance; (2) a hypothetical example of how long it would take to pay a specified balance in full if only minimum payments are made; and (3) a toll-free telephone number that consumers may call to obtain an estimate of the time it would take to repay their actual account balance using minimum payments."

As with the account opening disclosures, there currently are few format requirements for change-in-terms disclosures. Thus consumers generally discover them in notices, amendments or pamphlets seemingly written by a legal whiz but undecipherable to average readers. That will end under the proposals. If the change in terms is one that must be provided in a table in the account-opening summary, it must be provided in a table in any notice of a change in terms. Creditors can also give notice of change-in-terms on your periodic or monthly billing statements, but again, in a table.

Regulation Z requires creditors to disclose all costs and terms before a new credit card's first use. However, according to the board, "Currently, there are few format requirements for these account-opening disclosures, which are typically interspersed among other contractual terms in the creditor's account agreement." The regulators want that to change. They would do away with the option of presenting account-opening information in tiny type legalese. The proposed account-opening disclosure is intended to organize the information in tables and standardize its presentation to allow easier comparisons.