My Debt Started With A Candy Bar!

As a freshman in college, there was a table set up in one of the common areas of campus. Sitting at the table were the largest and yummiest looking candy bars displayed ever so nicely. Now, to a hungry freshman right before an hour long lecture in Chemistry – those candy bars looked awefully good.

They weren’t selling them though, – in order to get one you had to sign up for a credit card. Hmmm…get a credit card and get a candy bar? Seemed like a good idea. I signed up, got my king size Milky Way, and off to Chemistry I went.

A few weeks later I got something in the mail. I even forgot about signing up for the credit card. I open it up and I now have $500 that I didn’t have two weeks earlier. I looked at the card, put it in my wallet and realized that I now had alot of money that I could spend.

What a naive freshman I was. Naive about credit cards that is.

And that is the story of how my debt got started with a candy bar.

Technorati Tags: debt, credit+card, credit, credit+card+forms

Posted by Tricia on February 16, 2006 at 12:12 AM in Credit Cards | 6 Comments »
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Blogging Away Debt » Blog Archive » Total Credit Limit $57,000 vs. Total Income $45,000 responded:
Posted: July 16th, 2006 at 11:22 am
[...] One thing I will never understand about credit card companies is why our credit limits are so high. Credit Card #2 just kept raising and raising my limit when I was near my limit (which was often). It started off in 1995 at $500. Then they kept raising it and before I knew it – my credit limit was more than I made in a year. [...]
Some Articles Worth Reading : Blogging Away Debt responded:
Posted: February 7th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
[...] I actually read an article like this CNN article in a 2003 Money magazine. College freshman are applying for credit cards and before they know it that have thousands in debt. That was definitely me. After all, my debt started with a candy bar as a freshman in college. [...]
Who’s To Blame for Your Money Troubles? : Blogging Away Debt responded:
Posted: April 14th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
[...] that you should be placing on rectifying the problem. I can easily blame the college for allowing credit card application booths on campus. If I didn’t get that candy bar for signing up for a credit card, I may not have [...]
Targeting Students With Easy Credit Isn't Just a U.S. Thing » Blogging Away Debt responded:
Posted: June 13th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
[...] the credit life (like with how in most colleges you can find some group handing out items like a candy bar in return for a completed credit card [...]
Patrick responded:
Posted: June 14th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Wow… The popular thing to offer at our college was t-shirts. Most of the time I would rather have a t-shirt, but I was really hungry…
Kat responded:
Posted: February 1st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Yea… I got a free tshirt

whoopdeedo

college kids are dumb! lol