Credit Card Companies Should Not Be on Campus Marketing to College Students

College students should have the right to attend school without having to worry about credit card companies trying to take advantage of them.   In an article sponsored by Citi Forward Student Card by Woodrow Aames it says “unfortunately, many students fail to take along the most important thing: a practical sense of responsibility when it comes to running up credit card debt” (Woodrow, 2010).   This illustrates that there are people out there that believe credit card companies should not be marketing to college students.
There are other ways that college students can build their credit history.   Piggybacking, is when a student becomes an authorized user on a parent’s credit card account, is one such way (Henis, 2009).   Having a co-signer is an alternative way to receive a credit card.   This means that the person who co-signs agrees to be responsible if the student does not pay their bill.   “A less risky alternative to co-signing is to add a child as an authorized user to one’s account,” says Karen Klugh, communications manager for the American Financial Services Association, a trade association for the consumer credit industry (Henis, 2009).   Prepaid cards are another way that college students can go if they really want to have a credit card.   There are a few prepaid cards–reloadable cards on which consumers place money and then use like debit cards to make purchases--can help build credit (Henis, 2009).   Not all of these types of cards offer credit-building features and those that do may not compare to more traditional methods of creating credit.   There are also secured credit cards that students can use.   These cards are used the same way that traditional credit cards are used.   They have to pay a security deposit just in case they do not pay the bill in full.   When or if the student decides to close his or her account, then he or she will receive the security deposit back.   There is little to no risk with these types of cards for financial ruin but there is no... [continues]

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