Marketing Credit Cards on College Campuses
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- Date Submitted: 05/30/2011 11:08 PM
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Marketing Credit Cards on College Campuses
I believe that credit card companies should not be on campus marketing to students because this is a form of predatory lending as college students are accumulating too much credit before they graduate. Credit cards are a form of loan given to qualifying applicants that must be paid back monthly with usually high interest rates. Students today have many types of debt, student loans, and other bills to worry about and a credit card payment should not be one of them. Some credit cards can have an interest rate of up to 29.99% annually. With interest rates this high, it would take a person over 15 years paying just the minimum amount on a $5,000 loan.
I feel strongly regarding credit lending of this type because I owned a credit counseling company for over four years and have seen the devastation of college students and graduates that are overwhelmed by credit card bills and student loans. My counseling office was in Huntington, West Virginia, exactly two blocks from Marshall University. I had about 300 customers after the second year and a little over 30% of my customers were students or recent college graduates. This was very troubling for me to actually see first-hand that some of these students never had a chance to succeed financially, credit-wise. I got a similar story from many of the students. They were purchasing food, clothes, cell phone bills, and other living expenses on their credit card. I feel that the credit gave some of the students a false sense of reality, thinking why pay cash now when I can pay back a little each month? Before these students knew it, they were at their credit limit and unable to pay their monthly bills.
Credit card debts coupled with student loans that need to be re-paid after graduation most of these students found themselves in a huge hole before they were even given a shovel to try and get out of it. The average college student carries an average of...
I believe that credit card companies should not be on campus marketing to students because this is a form of predatory lending as college students are accumulating too much credit before they graduate. Credit cards are a form of loan given to qualifying applicants that must be paid back monthly with usually high interest rates. Students today have many types of debt, student loans, and other bills to worry about and a credit card payment should not be one of them. Some credit cards can have an interest rate of up to 29.99% annually. With interest rates this high, it would take a person over 15 years paying just the minimum amount on a $5,000 loan.
I feel strongly regarding credit lending of this type because I owned a credit counseling company for over four years and have seen the devastation of college students and graduates that are overwhelmed by credit card bills and student loans. My counseling office was in Huntington, West Virginia, exactly two blocks from Marshall University. I had about 300 customers after the second year and a little over 30% of my customers were students or recent college graduates. This was very troubling for me to actually see first-hand that some of these students never had a chance to succeed financially, credit-wise. I got a similar story from many of the students. They were purchasing food, clothes, cell phone bills, and other living expenses on their credit card. I feel that the credit gave some of the students a false sense of reality, thinking why pay cash now when I can pay back a little each month? Before these students knew it, they were at their credit limit and unable to pay their monthly bills.
Credit card debts coupled with student loans that need to be re-paid after graduation most of these students found themselves in a huge hole before they were even given a shovel to try and get out of it. The average college student carries an average of...