This scenario is more common than you think as today's college students become mired in the muck of credit card debt. Easy access to pre-approved cards and a lack of understanding about the problems of plastic contribute to many students graduating with credit problems on their heels. In the late 1980s, credit card companies began targeting college students as they realized that the market was already saturated with working adults paying high interest on their cards. Plus, their sense of brand loyalty promised that many students would keep these credit cards for a long time after they graduated. In fact, MasterCard found that three-fourths of former college students still held their first credit card 15 years later.
College students are also easy to reach.
Flyers in college bookstore bags, free applications posted everywhere and ads in the school paper are all hard to miss. These pervasive recruitment campaigns have also expanded to include direct telemarketing to residence hall rooms, mass mailings to student boxes and Internet advertisements galore. Such marketing ploys seem to pay off for credit card companies. According to the Nellie Mae company, approximately 65 percent of today's undergraduates have at least one credit card. And 20 percent own four or more.