The Inside Scoop

This week’s paper is blessed with an article on the front page that for a long time has been bothering me. So what better time to tell you why I have such problems with credit card companies courting college students here at Georgia College & State University.

First of all, GC&SU is supposed to be an institution of learning. Granted, there are things that go on here that aren’t always in the direct interest of learning. But if you were to examine most of them that are sponsored or allowed by the school, they are, for the most part, beneficial to the college.

In high school I was always plagued with recruiters from the armed services trying to get me at any cost to sign up for the military. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the military and at times have almost considered joining our nations’ armed forces. But when it comes to institutions of learning, it is almost impossible to court or advertise to students for anything other than things that assist or improve their learning. Programs such as, outside of school that educate students about leadership and other character building options.

Here at GC&SU, there are many things that you can be involved in that teach you more than the classroom can. But when it comes to credit cards, how does any school justify allowing them to be advertised to students.

What does a credit card teach a student about money that cannot be learned with other financial options? For example, I have a checking account of which I have to keep track. It teaches me to be responsible financially, as well as teaches me how to manage my money. I also have a check card that I can use at restaurants, online, and anywhere credit cards are excepted. So why should I need a credit card? Hmm…to spend money I don’t have, and then pay it back at a higher price? How can this help college students?

Plain and simple, it doesn’t. All credit cards do for college students is let them spend money they don’t have. Then the students have to pay it back at high interest rates and most of the time with balances that will take six years or more to pay off. I did some quick research online and typed in the keywords “college students credit cards” at a popular search engine. The results that I received from that search were happy and full of promises that seemed unending. The promises and guarantees ranged from “incredibly low interest rates,” to all kinds of free stuff. Next, I typed in the keywords “college students problems credit cards.” I received one positive response about credit card use among college students among the hundred or so I scrolled by. The positive one, oddly enough, was a press release. That means, for those of you who aren’t Mass Communication majors, that the press release I found was nothing more than a sponsored survey from somebody with an agenda. The survey specifically stated that is was released in order to “change perceptions about college students and credit cards.” Now oddly enough, I wonder who would be worried about changing perceptions such as those? Maybe its credit card companies? Nah, it couldn’t be.

Regardless of where, you go to it is obvious that over the past few decades’ credit card companies have learned how to market to us. With free this and free that just because you sign up, it is hard to resist just filling out a little form. Except that when that form is processed, you then have a credit line available to you anywhere from $1,000 to upwards to $5,000 or more.

Personally, I feel that none of this would be much of a problem if colleges did not let credit card companies advertise to students everywhere they turn. In just one of my classes, an English class, there are at least twelve separate ads for things dealing with credit and making it available to students. They are in classrooms, on a bulletin boards usually next to offers for study-abroad or other opportunities for students to enrich themselves. Why does our school allow this and why do other schools?

I mean, you never see ads for stores, food, or anything else in the classroom. Sure, sometimes the school will let bargain sellers come to campus and offer us cheap knock-off stuff but not in the classroom. I think that we college students should, for once, take a notice about how we are being manipulated and not looked out for.

All I have to say, is think before you do it. Thanks y’all.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 5 2001. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry