They often set up tables right on campus at the start of the school year to hand out applications and free goodies. More offers land in students' hands at the college bookstore, stuffed into bags with the receipts. Still more get pinned to bulletin boards. As a result, some students get in over their heads and start out their adult lives deep in a financial hole. Now, Congress and several state legislatures are considering bills that would curb the marketing and issuing of cards to college students and force the card issuers to pump up educational efforts.
Colleges are outraged as well.
More than 300 colleges and universities have banned credit card marketers from their campuses. We're just trying to level the playing field so the student has a fighting chance. It exacerbates the educational loan debt that's already accumulated. One-fifth of all college students have four or more credit cards. More employers and landlords are checking the credit reports of job candidates, so the cleaner the credit, the better.