by Kimberly K

Created on: June 24, 2009

Credit card companies that target college students really shouldn't complain when they don't get their payments. Seriously, this tactic by credit card companies is foolish at best. College kids have little or no income and what little they may have is to be spent on tuition, books and other living expenses. Part of the college experience should be to learn how to live within your means. Having a credit card with a $5000 credit limit or more, is not the best way to learn this lesson.

Credit card companies have been targeting college students for at least two decades. I fell into the credit card trap at the beginning of my sophomore year. I remember it well. I was waiting in a long line at the bookstore. The line went out the door and right by a table set up by a credit card company. I don't quite remember what they were giving away, but I do remember that they hooked my friends and me as we waited in line. The end result was that I graduated college with not only student loan debt, but also a ton of credit card debt.

Many people wonder why this country cannot live within its means. It's not that we cannot, it just that we don't think we need to. The credit card companies have us believing that they will take care of us. They trap us when we're young and hold us captive until we either declare bankruptcy or we wise up and claw our way out of debt.

Both options are difficult decisions, and credit card companies make sure they make either road as difficult as possible. They don't want us to take either of those two paths. They want us to be at their mercy and to make only the minimum payments. If we declare bankruptcy they will not get their money (or at least not all of what is owed to them). If we pay off our debt the companies know that we may stop using our cards and they will be unable to take advantage of us and charge outrageous fees to help us. These companies want to hold us in servitude to them so they offer many tantalizing things to keep us enslaved.

With so many attractive offers by credit card companies, college kids are bound to get caught up in the excitement. Even those who start out using credit cards only for emergencies can easily fall into the credit trap. It just takes one week or month where money is tight and the downward spiral will start. If the companies that target college students were to offer, at the time of application, credit counseling and information on creating a budget they would at least seem a bit more credible. However few, if any, of those companies actually offer such a service.

Some may argue that a credit card will help a young student establish credit and help them in the future. That may be true to a certain extent, but I fail to see how a maxed out card or two and failure to make several monthly payments will help anyone.

College students are young adults and quite capable of making good decisions. However, credit cards are potentially dangerous for anyone, and even more so for a struggling student with limited income. Credit card companies need to step up and educate young people about personal finance. They need to quit handing out freebies and credit card applications on campus and instead offer seminars on the benefits and risks of credit, and how to avoid credit card debt.

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