Why Credit Companies Target College Students

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Why credit companies target college students
Attitude of college students toward credit card usage
Conclusion
References

Introduction

This paper discusses why credit card companies should not market to college students .The culture of spending has become an important shaper of societal approach towards money and is now a widespread way of life in colleges.

In a bid to get more customers, the credit card companies target college students, and to do this, they employ assertive marketing techniques in order to attract students. College students have been raised in homes where money acquired through credit is used without inhibitions (Ritzer 1995).Since credit is available easily, students tend to overspend.

College students now have easier access to credit than any earlier generations. However, the use of credit cards and the debts that is a consequence of cards have become an increasingly monetary threat to students.

Today’s credit card companies are getting outrageously ridiculous with their marketing ideas and strategies. Many of their strategies are pointed towards people who are more likely to be irresponsible. The one strategy I would like to talk to you about and my opinion about it is credit card companies should not be on campus marketing to college students.

Why credit companies target college students

One point of view to this is that credit card companies target college students because many of them are young. Younger people are most likely naive and do not spend their money wisely. They would use a credit card for everything and maybe let the balance pile up and only pay the minimum. This would make the interest pile up and when they did pay their bill, most of the payment would be going towards the interest. This would be making the credit card companies more money.

Another point of view would be that maybe credit card companies think that if people are smart enough to go to college that maybe they are really smart with their money and are completely in control of their financial status. Maybe the companies view it as a place to pick up some continuous valued customers.

I got that point of view when I asked my mother to read what I was writing and that was her point of view! I do see her point of view as a valuable opinion and I enjoyed her criticism of the topic. But let me tell you some of the facts and things that I have learned while studying this argument.

In a report from trueCredit.com students graduate from collage while being indebted to credit companies for significant amounts This report further indicates that ten percent of undergraduates graduate with thousand of dollars as loans. After finishing your studies it’s a night mare for you to start thinking of paying debt to credit cards companies. It’s more than enough for a twenty year old to think of how he will pay school loans, utilities and rent if he used them and how he will support himself in life.

There will be bills to be paid every month and other additional debt, for example, car loan. That is already a lot of concerns that must handled by a young student. Prior to going to college, a student should employ some fundamental principles to avoid falling into the debt trap. These are some interesting facts I learned from an author named Latoya Irby. She was also interested in this argument. I learned a lot from her.

Students who are in college are the main target of credit companies. This is so because of several rationales:

They expect the credit accrued from the cards will be cleared by the student’s parents.
Students face many years of clearing the debt. Companies go even further to give credit to students who have no security. For illustration, a student can have access to credit without any security being required. This proves that they are out for blood so to speak. They prey upon young people and try to get them hooked and sucked into the system. I think it is sad that this is allowed to go on, especially in a place where we go to better ourselves. Of all places a school is not a place that these types of things should be happening.

Attitude of college students toward credit card usage

The change of outlook towards money has become an essential means for the broadening of the college student’s consumer habits. Findings intimate that the resultant attitudes towards money: “power, prestige, distrust, and anxiety” (Yamauchi and Templer 1982) are linked to purchases that are compulsive, whereby the use of credit cards averages these correlations.

Studies entailing a wide range of adult consumers revealed that approximately 1%-6% fall under the category of buyers that are compulsive. When Faber and O’Guinn’s (1992) “clinical screener for compulsive buying” is used to examine the respondents, 6% of questioned college students are deemed to use money for purchases out of compulsion.

As a result, the indicators point to the need for an enhanced comprehension of the attitude towards making purchases of college students. Some factors, that include: psychological and socio-economic influences are the main contributors of the attitudes towards the use of credit cards.

When buying trends of college students are analyzed, a sentimental attitude towards credit and gender were the main affecters of the students’ decision to use (or not use) credit for purchases.

This sentimental attitude towards credit affected how clothes, entertainment, gasoline, travel and food (that is not home made) were bought. Females made more purchases of clothes, while males made more purchases of electronics and entertainment related goods. Females were found to have made purchases that followed the principles of economics more than males.

Conclusion

According to a press release statement of the American Consumer Federation, when the credit card debt and study loans of a student are added, the total is approximately $20,000. Consequently the debts of the student that has attended college may exceed those of the populace that has not attended collage which means that students who use credit cards will be burdened with severe financial concerns later on in life.

This paper has discussed how credit accrued by students while still in college has significant consequences on their future monetary health. This paper concludes that credit companies should not market to college students, so as not induce students to undertake debts unnecessarily which would lead to a long-term financial burden.

References

Faber and O’Guinn. 1992. “A Clinical Screener for Compulsive Buying”. Journal of Consumer Research, 19:459–469.

Ritzer, G. 1995. Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, Thousand Oaks , CA : Pine Forge Press.

Yamauchi, K. and D. Templer 1982. “The Development of a Money Attitudes Scale”. Journal of Personality Asses

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Why Credit Companies Target College Students

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