Credit card companies behaving badly on college campuses


Every day we get another report of abusive and predatory practices in the consumer lending industry, and today is no different. Ohio's Attorney General has sued Citibank for its advertisements on the Ohio State University Campus, which included offers for FREE FOOD! -- if you'll just fill out this credit card application.

The lawsuit alleges that Citibank used bait-and-switch advertising and did not provide students with adequate information about everything they were getting into. BusinessWeek takes a look at the practice of "affinity cards" -- another form of credit card company malpractice with the help of friendly universities. In exchange for large payments, credit card issuers can gain exclusive access to a university's students at events like football games. In some cases, the schools even provide the companies with students' email addresses so they can be bombarded with offers.

These credit card companies have no business being on college campuses, and the universities are doing a disservice to their students by allowing them to be market to this way. if a student needs a credit card, he can go get one ... off campus. There can be no doubt that aggressive marketing on college campuses has lured many students into a cycle of financial woes.

If you have a story about credit cards on campus, please visit Student Public Interest Research Groups.

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