New York launches student credit card protections

Consumer advocates say most Americans are unaware of the cozy relationship many colleges have with credit card companies, and they applaud New York State's efforts to intercede at its public colleges. As we told you yesterday, the state's 64 SUNY campuses agreed to a code of conduct drawn up by New York's Attorney General to protect students from being taken advantage of by credit card companies.

While the CARD Act put the kibosh on some abuses (such as offering a T-shirt, water bottle or some other student-friendly freebie to coax kids into applying for credit), that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issuers' sneaky behavior. What's perhaps even more worrisome is that it's very likely that New Yorkers didn't even know about all the ways card companies used colleges as conduits to worm their way into students' wallets.