There is a man prowling around campus your parents did not tell you about. He offers you a gateway to go anywhere you want to go, be anyone you want to be. The product he pushes is cheap and easy to come by. He lures you in with M&Ms and cheap t-shirts. He offers you freedom, but in reality sells your future into bondage.
No students, it is not the dope man - it is the credit card guy. There he sits in his transient booth on Hayden Lawn, passing out credit cards to any cash-strapped college student who passes by. From emergency cash at the bars to spring break airline tickets, words cannot begin to sing the praises of these plastic marvels.
According to an annual study released by Nellie Mae, a top originator of post-secondary education loans, the number of undergraduate college students with credit cards has risen to 83 percent, a 24 percent jump since 1998.
Nellie Mae also reported that the percentage of students with four or more credit cards nearly doubled in three years to 47 percent in 2001. In addition, while more than half (54 percent) of freshman students possess a credit card, nearly all (92 percent) of sophomore students own at least one card.
Catherine Pulley, communications manager for the American Bankers Association, said every student gets credit card information sent to their homes and e-mailed to them.
"Marketing to college students is very competitive and very intense," Pulley said. "This is the generation that has known credit from the cradle to the grave."
Pulley said using credit responsibly in college allows students to be able to get a car loan without their parent's help when they graduate.
"Credit is not necessarily a bad thing, it is a loan with an obligation to repay," she said. "If you use credit wisely, you can get things that are part of the American dream."
David Hoffman, a finance professor at ASU, said credit cards are too easy for students to use.
"Credit card companies grant credit too quickly," Hoffman said. "Most students have lower incomes while in school, but their desires have not changed. Credit cards may allow them (students) to maintain an artificial lifestyle."
Laura Jastrzab, a French senior, said her first credit card turned into a disaster.
"You don't realize how much you are spending on it - it adds up."
But Jastrzab added that credit does have its positive aspects.
"You can't get a loan without establishing credit," she said.
Brandi Bigley,. a music theater senior, said she has four credit cards and three store credit cards.
"My four credit cards are completely maxed out," Bigley said. "I have $4,000 in debt."
Bigley said she buys clothes, food and coffee with her credit cards.
"I pay my credit cards off with grants and loans that I get," Bigley said. "It is an endless cycle every semester - I end up racking it up and paying it off."
Dave Bustoz, a history senior, said he does not own a credit card.
"I don't like spending money I don't have," Bustoz said. "I think they (credit card vendors) are trying to lure in innocent people with free gifts, so they can dig in their claws and never let go."
Throughout the school year, many credit card vendors set up tables around the Memorial Union, Student Recreation Center and Hayden Lawn to get students to sign applications.
Sue Kinkler, administrative assistant in the Sun Devil Involvement Center, said anyone can be a vendor at ASU as long as they follow the rules and procedures.
"If a credit card vendor wants to come on campus, they must set up around the Memorial Union, provide their proof of insurance and then have a student club sponsor them," Kinkler said. "But a lot of people just show up with a folding table and some M&Ms and set up anywhere they want on campus."
Credit card vendors attract students with candy, t-shirts, trinkets and prize giveaways.
"Students get in over their heads and sign up for six or seven credit cards, and then their parents call our office and complain," Kinkler said. "Many students fill out an application, grab the free M&Ms because they are hungry and then go to class. The freebee you get is not worth the pain in the future."
