With graduation season upon us and student debt at a record $1.7 trillion, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released a report on the Cities with the Most & Least Student Debt in 2021 (accompanying videos and audio files), along with a nationally representative Student Money Survey. WalletHub’s editors also picked the Best Credit Cards for 2021 Graduates, to help new college and high school grads build credit and maximize savings.
| Most Overleveraged Cities | Least Overleveraged Cities |
| Fernandina Beach, FL | Garden City, NY |
| Avon Park, FL | Gilroy, CA |
| Orangeburg, SC | Sammamish, WA |
| Beaver Falls, PA | Sunnyvale, CA |
| Ashland, OR | Morgan Hill, CA |
| Sun City West, AZ | Summit, NJ |
| Athens, GA | Foster City, CA |
| Bloomington, IN | Southlake, TX |
| Hallandale Beach, FL | Riverbank, CA |
| Cottonwood, AZ | Darien, CT |
Survey Results & Best Card Picks
- Almost 25% of students think that a college education is less important due to COVID-19.
- 42% of students think that credit cards will be more important after the pandemic.
- 29% of students have missed a bill payment since the pandemic began.
- Having emergency savings (48%) is the most important financial lesson students have learned from the pandemic, followed by having a steady job (24%) and not going into debt (15%).
- Almost 1 in 2 students say that the pandemic has helped improve their financial literacy.
- The best credit cards for 2021 graduates are the Bank of America® Cash Rewards Credit Card for Students (limited credit & EDU email), the Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card (limited credit & no EDU email), and the Discover it® Secured Credit Card (damaged credit).
