Universities Profit From Student Credit Card Debt

ccstuff.jpgDon’t deny it; you know you have a closet full of free t-shirts you got when you signed up for a credit card on the way to a football game. Those damn banks and credit card companies have tents and tables all over campus luring you in with free sh*t if you sign up for one of their student-specific credit cards.

Free stuff and a new credit card? Hell yes! What’s the harm, right?

How about serious credit card debt (an average of $2,623 for college seniors nationwide)? Or serious credit issues – the kind that got us into this whole recession mess in the first place – after graduation?

We all know that credit card companies target college students because we don’t know how to handle our money, but it seems they aren’t the only ones profiting. According to the New York Times, our very own universities are selling our information to those guys! Instead of protecting us and our futures, our schools are handing us over to the sharks and promoting our potential to incur serious debt.

Shouldn’t universities – places of learning – teach us how to manage money instead of profiting from our lack of experience? Doesn’t working with credit card companies go against the role of a university in the first place?

What do you think?

[Photo courtesy of NYTimes.com]

3 Comments on "Universities Profit From Student Credit Card Debt"

  1. Debra says:
    Fri, 2nd Jan 200912:50 pm 

    The interest rates become huge if you’re late on a payment. Those credit cards are ready to make you pay for anything even if they advertise low rates.

    But don’t act like this is the only thing a university does to get money. Books each semester are jacked up to amazing prices, when you can simply purchase them online (Amazon, etc.). The cafeteria food? Gawh, the prices and the taste! Your university signs contracts with private companies like publishers and food providers. But your own university puts a price on those services to make up the price of paying those companies back and anything else for the school. In the end they squeeze the money out of you any way they can.

    On my tuition there’s a fee for “Studying Abroad” and I’ve never been and have never considered going. Another example. A contract was definately signed for what soft drink company would have their machines on campus. We’re a pepsi nation.

  2. Patrice says:
    Fri, 2nd Jan 20095:27 pm 

    It’s crazy! I wrote an article about this for my school paper… it’s shocking how much money people make from scamming college students!

  3. HCR says:
    Sat, 3rd Jan 20097:27 pm 

    Actually I think that anybody who is smart enough to be doing a university degree should also be smart enough NOT to fall for these stupid scams.

    I am currently in my 6th year of education and my credit card debt is minimal because I educated myself about them before I signed up.

    You can only assume the people who sign away their name to a credit agreement willy nilly are also the kind of people who would send their info. to a spammer…

    In short – I feel sorry for the people who fall for these scams but I also think they learn VALUABLE LIFE LESSONS when they get screwed over by it in the end.

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