Marketing to Students?

Think back to when you were in college. Do you remember all of the credit card offers you received? Credit card companies spend millions of dollars targeting college students. Why? Because these students don’t always know how to use credit cards responsibly and can end up paying a great deal in interest payments.

Plus, these students will have good jobs and be in their careers in a couple of years. So, why not let students rack up credit card debt and then nail them in interest charges once they are finally in a career?

Many students don’t realize that their colleges and universities are helping the credit card companies. Not them. Many colleges and universities actually sell student contact information. Some institutions even give contact information to credit card companies. All of this is always done without any consent from the student.

Florida has already begun discussion about prohibiting these actions. A Republican lawmaker from Florida, Carey Baker, brought the item to the table. He has worked closely with The Consumer Warning Network to expose higher-education institutions and credit card companies.

In July of 2008, The Consumer Warning Network showed us just how dangerous things have gotten. It reported that some colleges/universities “pocket” a portion of the proceeds every time a student applies for or qualifies for a credit card. It also exposed exclusive marketing schemes from Bank of America to college students.

Now, lawmakers are extremely interested in what the relationship is between credit card companies and institutions of higher learning.

Carey Baker has proposed new legislation that would prohibit these practices. His bill would completely prohibit any college or university (public or private) from working with credit card companies. These institutions would now be prohibited from “offering or facilitating the marketing of credit cards to undergraduate students.”

This would be welcome legislation. Instead of helping credit card companies, maybe colleges and universities would take a more active role in educating undergraduate students about the proper ways to use credit cards. After all, the students of today will be the financial and economical leaders of tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Credit Card Offers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.