I’m a grad student from outside of USA, and in my country I never had any type of debt. In fact, we don’t have credit cards back there, and getting things on credit is something only the desperate people. Without any prior experience on how to handle credit cards, I got into serious cc debt within 2 years of arriving at USA. I have about 6.5K of CC debt. However, I’ve stopped using all but one of my credit cards now, and pay that off in full every month these days. I’m also planning to pay off at least 75% of my debt using money from my summer job.

My advice to all immigrants to USA — never get more than one credit card to start with!! With no experience in credit cards, you’d sink faster than you can realize.