Credit Card Debt Among College Students

[AKAtude]

I subscribe to a couple of e-newsletters and the topic in one of them was about credit card debt. This made me think of a story I saw last week on either Dateline NBC or 20/20 Downtown. The reporter interviewed several college students and those who have graduated.

The students spoke of the incredible debt they gained from receiving credit cards while in college. One gentleman said he had to forgo graduate school because he could not afford it due to the amount he owed.

Then, the reporter uncovered a dirty little secret. Some colleges actually are paid thousands and thousands of dollars by the credit card companies to come on campus and solicit credit card applications to the students. They also sell students names and phone numbers so the companies can solicit by telephone (I always wondered how they knew my name and phone number in my residence hall).

One school in Tennesse refused to be interviewed, while some state lawmakers are finding ways to ban this practice. They say that students without an acceptable source or of income or no incmome at all should not be constantly tempted to apply for credit.

Of course, the credit card companies continue to say that most college students know how to manage the use of credit wisely. However, there is still a somewhat high rate of students who are unable to handle the privilege.

I remember lots of representatives on my campus were always set up in the student center. They gave away t-shirts, cups, pens, etc. to attract students.

Since we have so many college students and recent grads on this board, I was just wondering what everyone thought about this.

I'm sorry for the long post.