College is a time for students to learn to be on their own for the first time in their lives, and a majority have a lot to learn about managing money—especially handling their own finances.

Always organized and never one to miss a sale, I’ll admit that many times during college I flirted with the minimum balance in my checking account. Even though I worked during the summers, that money dwindled quickly over the school year.

This week CEEL released information on a survey of 500 college students that shows an overwhelming number of America’s college students are already credit dependent, but do not understand the basics of borrowing and interest rates.

I came upon an article that details some of the most common mistakes that college students make when it comes to managing money.

Tip #3 “Ignoring Your Checkbook” reminds me of a time when I asked my classmate to hold off on cashing my check for a used book until I made sure I had plenty of money in my checking account (much to the concern of my father). The point is that even though I did have enough money to pay her for the book, I wanted to be diligent about my minimum daily balance and be sure that there was enough padding in my checking account to avoid any kind of overdraft charges in the event of an emergency.

Whenever possible, it’s better to be cautious and pay close attention to your money. With warnings against financial flubs that many students might not easily think of, a  lot of the other tips are very helpful—#2 “Spending Leftover College Loan Money,” #4 “Blowing Through Meal Plan Points” (another concern of Dad’s), and #5 “Lending Money to New Friends“.