If you want to smoke cigarettes – then you need to be 18.

If you want a credit card – then you can’t be an unemployed college student who is already racking up $20,000.00 dollars plus of education loans a year.

You guys can say what ever you want about “good marketing” and “Nobody is forcing them to sign up”, but come on… If you give people access to things some of them are going to take advantage of it – regardless if it is in their best interest or not. If that’s really the argument you want to make, then you should have no problem with companies like Philip-Morris setting up a booth at a high school. It’s good-marketing after all… Get them hooked early. And what’s the harm – Nobody would be FORCING them to buy a pack of smokes!

Give me a break…

I have issues with providing credit cards to students if they don’t have income. That doesn’t compute. If someone doesn’t have the means to repay – how is that a good business practice?

Grouping has always been a part of marketing – get a candy bar for signing up, free tv if you sit through a timeshare presentation.

As stated before, nobody forces you to sign up for a credit card. CC companies provide a service, and you are free to not take part of that service.

Do you think that credit cards should have a warning label like cigarettes? “Spending money you don’t have may lead to financial instability and bankruptcy.”

Issues of ethics in selling is very interesting. I think that it is nearly impossible to be 100% ethical while making money. It’s wonderful if someone can keep their nose perfectly clean, but I think it is rare.

I hope the following doesn’t make me too unpopular here, but I’m going to partially side with the college.

I think that blame for lousy lending habits should be shared equally between the consumer and the lender. If someone is in college, they are 1. of a high intelligence and 2. an adult. If they make a mistake, they will learn from it much more than if they are protected from it. I’m not sure where the line should be in protecting college students from their own stupid spending mistakes, but I think they should certainly be allowed to have a credit card.

And who doesn’t have a credit card these days? I certainly don’t begrudge anyone for selling credit cards. It is a perfectly legitimate form of payment. Many consumers abuse it, but many don’t. I’d say that a college promoting credit cards is somewhat crass, and in a gray area of ethics, but I think it should be allowed.

It’s sad. Any why the economy, and peoples views are going back to the post depression thinking.

Save then spend.

Really?! Do you really believe that?!

My concern isn’t as much with the “where” as much as it is the “who”. They are marketing them on college campuses – to college students. They are marketing high interest credit to group a of people who 1.) Have limited or no income. 2.) Have limited or no credit history. The normal selection-criteria that is put in place for typical applications is eased up for students b/c card issuers want to get them “hooked” early.

It all comes back to the same problem – lending money to people that don’t have the means to repay it. If the housing meltdown and this economy has taught us anything, it is that we are all interconnected. The neighborhood I live in is full of empty houses, the value of my new home has plummeted, my 401K balance is laughable and it all stems from years of handing out money hand over fist to people who can not and will not pay it back. So I completely disagree – those types of lending practices have a negative impact on us all. It’s capitalism at it’s worst…

We have to teach our kids. Websites like yours are doing their part to show how detrimental credit card debt is.

Until we accept responsibility for our spending and actions then not much will change.

I think it’s hard to get educated about credit cards when you are young, you have to experience the debt and experience how long it takes to pay it off. That’s when you learn.

I think the key factor here is restricting the limit on their credit card. When credit card companies keep sending out pre-approved limit increases to people who can’t afford to get heavily in debt, that’s the big issue.