Personal Finance

    Credit card companies have been called out onto the carpet about targeting young adults with their advertising techniques. They are accused of preying on their gullibility in order to convince them to sign up for cards that have bad terms. They are also accused of using their low income and lack of experience to get high interest that they know they will be collecting. This practice has been condemned by parents, and has even caused suicides in college students.

    Credit card companies that target college students are particularly vicious when it comes to trying to collect on the debt. When the calls for debt collection start coming in most college students panic. They hadn’t expected it, are embarrassed by it, and can’t seem to face it. They start avoiding the calls, and avoiding the bills. This isn’t responsible behavior, and they realize it, but fail to see another way to handle it. If the student answers the phone, the collectors aren’t above being rude and insulting to the student.

    When the students don’t respond to normal collecting techniques these companies will often resort to judicial means, even if the student tries to settle.  The courts often can’t get any money from a poor student, and so will garnish wages, which only accrues more interest and ensures that students won’t be able to pay off the debt. These students have now, not only plunged themselves deep into debt, but have also destroyed their hopes of getting a good job, or a house.

    Before their lives have even began, they are pushed to the bottom of the barrel just because they made a bad decision with money. If every person who made a bad decision with money was treated in this manner, no one in America would be able to get credit. Offering credit cards to young student who don’t have the means to repay the debt is a sneaky business practice by the credit card companies. The fact that they follow that decision with ruthless collecting practices, that ruin students for life, makes it an abhorrent act. Granted, no one other than the student can accept the blame for accepting the terms of the contract, and using the card.