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Essay on Credit Card Marketing on College Campuses

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The question of whether credit card companies should market on campuses or not, brings many different opinions, some of which are driven by personal experience and some that are driven by profit. There are those who do not agree with this because they know what they have gone through with credit card debt. There are also those who say they should market on campus because they are adults and contribute to the company’s profit. Even though students are adults and need to earn credit, credit card companies should not market to college students on campus because they are too naive and this results in graduating with too much debt. Students do not have the education needed to use credit cards responsibly. Nellie Mae (August 2007) states …show more content…

Credit card companies prey on naïve students to maximize their own profit. According to the documentary Maxed Out (2006), credit card companies prey on uneducated adults who more than likely not pay their bill on time. This guarantees them max profit whether it is paid by consumer or companies that buy debt. Students are graduating with an enormous amount to debt. This is a perfect reason to stop marketing credit cards on college campuses. The average outstanding balance on graduate student credit cards is $8,612, an increase of 10% from the 2003 average of $7,831 (Nellie Mae, 2007). This shows the trend that students are graduating with more debt than just their student loans. Students should not be worrying about any other debt after graduating. With credit card companies preying on students on campus, students will get these credit cards and ruin their financial future after college. Students which are 4 year undergraduates that borrow to pay their education, graduate with an average debt of $24,651 according to The Smart Student Guide to Financial Aid on www.finaid.org. That total with the average credit card debt equals $33,263, which is double the annual income of a minimum wage worker in the state of Maryland. Students will more than likely make less money a year than the total amount of debt they accumulate in college. Why then have credit card companies on campus dimming the potential light these students

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