He charged a pizza here and there, some CDs and books. Before he knew it, he had racked up thousands of dollars in debt. This tale of woe echoes at most campuses. Students, and parents who often belatedly discover the bills, say colleges are complicit in the credit card spiral. Schools sell mailing lists to the companies and let them set up tables in dining halls.
Some colleges take a cut for every dollar charged.
Dependence on debt, like so many of life's experiences, often begins in college. Pa. Credit card marketers covet the campus crowd for other reasons. Americans have intense loyalty to their first credit card, keeping it for an average of 15 years. And students have large appetites for goods and no apparent sense about the meaning of 20 percent interest. The credit card companies say students can and should learn to control debt.