After that, they can get credit cards on their own, and many do after they're targeted by mail campaigns or on campus card promotions. It's a big business. Card companies such as Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International, which control three-fourths of the market, have targeted college students since the late 1980s. Critics of credit card marketers on campus say these companies prey on college students with no jobs and little financial savvy, then profit when the young spenders get cards and run up debts. He's seen students run up thousands of dollars on credit cards, even those given cards by their parents to see the students through emergencies.
Parents worry about their kid being stranded at an airport.