Credit Card Advice for College Students
Those credit card reps offering up T-shirts and water bottles all over campus are catching the attention of university administrations across the country.
“Want a free T-shirt?” “Sign-up here and get a free ten-minute calling card.” “Take a minute to fill out this survey, and we’ll put your name in a drawing for a new yacht.”
Heard these pledges lately? They spill out of the mouths of approximately 1200 credit-card vendors who promote their products on college campuses across America every single day selling credit cards.
“You’ve got to keep your head down and eyes to the floor when you walk by them,” said Ithaca College junior Jon Byman, “Otherwise they’ll maul you.”
“I would never have considered applying for one if the credit card companies were not camped out in the student building offering their free gifts,cash back promotions and balance transfers, complains Amanda Woolsen, a student at the University of Alabama. I feel like [credit card companies] take advantage of the naive and financial crunch college students encounter … they should be banned from campuses.”
According to MasterCard, for every form a student fills out, the sponsoring organization receives anywhere from a quarter to two dollars depending on the institution. For the most part these sponsors are student activity organizations. Many student clubs rely heavily, (and sometimes entirely) on fund-raising for their operational budgets. And credit card vendors make up a hefty piece of that pie.
According to a poll taken on Vendor-Net, a student affairs list-serv of more than eighty-five higher-education personnel, around 60 percent of those vendors get complaints from student affairs personnel for selling too aggressively. Twenty percent of them have been kicked off campus or threatened with expulsion for similar reasons, and just under 5 percent have actually had charges of harassment brought against them.
Some jump around their little tables and block your path, others call across the union to get your attention. Most discomfiting is the vendor who subjects you to the guilt trip because it “only takes a second,” and he’s “just trying to make a living…”
But inconvenience and annoyance aren’t the only things credit card vendors bring to college communities. According to a 1997 poll by Claritas Inc., a market research firm in central New York, 70 percent of all college students had credit cards, up nearly 25 percent from 1990’s figures. The problem: these numbers are causing horrendous debt. The average balance of debt on those student credit cards was $2,100.
“We are concerned about the proliferation of credit card companies having freebie giveaways to get students to sign up for credit cards,” said John Francis, legal counsel for the California Association of College Stores. “We’re particularly concerned with their renting space in our student union to get them to do it.”
Other institutions have similar concerns, but banning card-vendors altogether is easier said than done. “We allow credit card vendors to come but would like it to stop,” said Bill Harcleroad, coordinator of campus programming for Alfred State College. “The concern is whether or not we can just not allow the credit card vendors while not allowing others.”
According to Francis, unless a college or university is private, they can not regulate who solicits on their campus. And even private schools have difficulty keeping these vendors away because of the vendors’ fund-raising potential for student groups.
At Ithaca College, around 20 percent of the 150-plus student organizations solicit the aid of credit card vendors to bolster their treasuries. And with some of those revenues adding up to as much as an additional 50 percent to their allocated budgets, it’s difficult to slap down any policy, especially when many club leaders support them.
“It’s kind of stressful,” said Byman. “I mean here’s your good friend sitting next to a salesman … It’s almost rude not to stop.”
So a number of colleges and universities allow card vendors to set up shop in their highest traffic areas, work their obnoxious bargaining magic and create crippling long-term debt for the student body. As if tuition deficits weren’t high enough!
School administrations, student affairs professionals, and student governments are reacting to these alarming problems, though. And they are finding some solutions. For example, Indiana University has recently added a credit card debt seminar to their orientation program. Education seems to be the most plausible correction effort. And according to various card representatives, the companies are willing to help with those, too.
Other campuses find that regulation is a better approach. “We limit credit card vendors to the first three weeks of each quarter,” said Mark K. Day, associate director for the California State University Student Union. “I’m not sure how this policy was developed, but it’s a compromise that works for us.”
Virginia Commonwealth University’s policy is to only permit card vendors if a recognized student club or organization sponsors them. Ithaca College’s Campus Solicitation Committee has discussed everything from limiting where these vendors can sit in the union, to banning them altogether. By limiting the time of day sales reps can sit on campus, colleges can alleviate a great deal of intimidation and prospective credit trouble.
Images courtesy, Mesa Legend
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