Plastic plague stocks students 

While walking on campus any given day, Cal State Long Beach students are inundated by solicitations of all kinds. From the latest fashions for the body, face and feet to class rings and the plastic plague of the century ó credit cards.
  
This week I was strolling past the University Bookstore when I heard the person at the GTE credit card table announcing to students that ìno income is needed in order to receive this card.î
 
It is shameful that credit card companies will issue credit to people without income and credit, especially on a college campus welcoming 3,450 freshmen.

Ken Hanson

 
Speaking from experience, many people sign the dotted line on credit card applications just to get the free M&Mís or T-shirts or whatever free gift happens to be on the table.
 
These credit card companies then send these students plastic cards with credit limits of between $200 and $10,000. 
 
Who can resist going on an incredible shopping spree with that kind of buying power suddenly in their hands? Often times, students go out and use a big chunk of that credit without thinking of how to pay it off at the end of the month.
 
Thatís when the card company really gets happy. Unpaid balances are subject to finance charges anywhere from about 3 to 27 percent a year on the balance. Every month that goes by without payment just increases the monetary punishment those students must face.
 
If these students have loans to help pay for tuition, they are going to be in even more financial trouble when trying to pay off credit card debts without any income.
 
It is a perfect racket for these card companies, though. They give out credit cards to starving students without income, wait for the monthly statements not to be returned, and begin applying the out-of-control interest rates. 
 
The companies have the perfect scam. They charge huge amounts of interest on people who cannot pay their bills. So they make tons of money off those unsuspecting students who have no income.
 
Then, after these companies realize people without income cannot pay huge credit card bills, they sock it to all their other customers by raising those outrageous interest rates. And we, the card-carrying consumer, pay for our purchases, as well as the unpaid balances of people with no credit history and no income.