Colleges team up with credit card issuers to ripoff students

Yesterday I wrote about colleges teaming up with textbook publishers to screw students out of just a little bit more of their hard-earned money.

Not wanting to miss out on the orgy of exploitation, credit card companies are also collaborating with colleges on misleading credit card offers loaded with undisclosed conflicts of interest. Basically, credit card companies are paying colleges in exchange for student information, and working out licensing deals that put colleges in a position to prosper by trapping their undergrads into a cycle of debt. Find out more about this sordid tale in this BusinessWeek story.

Here's how students can avoid this trap: if you receive a credit card offer in the mail, throw it in the trash. College students should never have more than one credit card -- there's just no reason to and, given that they're new at this, there's no reason for them to complicate their lives juggling multiple accounts. Log-on to creditcards.com's special card finder for college students, pick one with no annual fee, and pay off your balance every month.

If you know any college students, forward this post to them and save them some agony.