by Erika Armyn

Created on: January 21, 2009   Last Updated: September 24, 2009

From personal experience, I can assert that in many cases, credit card companies are dragging college students into a lifestyle of debt. When I attended university, representatives would set up booths at populated "hot spots" on campus, like the student bookstore and the campus activity center, enticing students with T-shirts and other marginally cool handouts. Credit card applications were passed out as casually as the free goodies, and these students milling around the booth never seemed to stop and consider the gravity of the financial decisions they were making.

Think of it this way: If someone is immature enough to sign up for something simply because he will be getting a free T-shirt out of the deal, that someone has no business carrying a credit card around. Credit card companies take advantage of these kind of students, ones that act on impulse. These are the students off of whom these companies profit. They are the ones who spend too much and don't pay their bills on time.

"Free Candy Bars!" "Sign up today and you'll get a 5 percent discount on the cost of textbooks!" Are any of these promotions really worth shouldering the burden of borrowed money? What is 5 percent of the cost of a semester's worth of textbooks, anyway? Based on what most students typically spend on books these days, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $20.

While I can understand that a credit card can be invaluable in times of dire need, I don't feel that a college student is necessarily ready to take on that kind of financial responsibility. Students are typically working low-paying part-time jobs between classes as I did to pay for my own rent and food. And those who aren't, are still living on their parents' dime. What happens if a student is unable to make a payment when money is tight, as it so often is in college? Late fees accrue, and this is often how students get sucked into the vicious cycle of credit card debt. By the time these students graduate, their credit is compromised to such a point that they can't purchase a car or rent an apartment in a halfway decent neighborhood.

I believe that campus administration needs to step up and restrict credit card companies handing out debt to students who are not yet financially stable enough to realize what they are getting themselves into. We have become a nation of debt, and granting credit to unestablished borrowers is doing nothing to abate the problem.

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