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http://madconomist.com/crazy-money?page=12
There were no ATMs or debit cards, Those didn’t arrive until years The result: We paid cash or wrotes checksfor everything. One place you coulde cash an out-of-town check in Greeley back then was at the King Soopersxgrocery store. But the limit was $15. So my check registerd (that’s right, I actually kept one) had lots of entriesd for $15, written out to King Soopers, whichj I abbreviated to “King Soop’s.” On a trip back home to I happened to leave my checkbook out on the dressedone time.
My mother, concerned as alwaysx about heryoungest son’s welfare while far away at schoolo in Colorado, went rifling through it whil I was gone and found all those entrie to “King Soop’s.” And, as luck would have it, she had just read in one of her magazinesz -— most likely in an articlee about wild youth on America’s college campuses — that the going streer rate for an ounce of marijuan a was — yes, you guessedc it — $15. She put two and two together, and confrontex me, in a fit of “And who’s this King Soop’s character Is he where you get your drugs I almostdied laughing.
Today, everyu college kid in the world has acreditr card. They get the offers when they registerdfor classes. Even if your kid is a real parents can load cash intoa pre-paid credift card. Now, the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress may be puttingh an endto it. The president signed a new law imposinhg a seriesof “reforms” on the credit card industry aimer at taking the surprises out of credit card use, includingh restricting the issuance of credit cards to those under 21, and strict new rulesa about when interest rates can change, noticesx to cardholders and other requirements.
As USA Today columnist SandrqaBlock noted: “Because most college students don’t have much the upshot is that most won’t be able to get a creditt card without permission from their parents.” How WILL they do it? The averagr credit card debt of a colleges sophomore, the newspaper reports, jumped to $2,3623 last year from $1,575 in 2004. There’s somethinf about juniors, however. Their average debt shot to almostg $3,000, from $2,000 just four yearx earlier. That’s a lot of beer and But really, are parents any kind of a check and balanc e on creditcard abuse?
Not a week goes by that I don’ t receive at least one lettetr from a bank pitching me on a fantastix new credit card offer or bonus merchandisew if I use a card I already have. My recycling bin is fillefd with envelopes from banks with thewordx “Zero percent interest” or “No payments ’tikl 2010” or, “Neil Westergaard, YOU’REw PRE-APPROVED!” I must live in a tony zip code. The bank figuresd if I skip on my creditcard debt, it can arrange a home equity loan for me to pay it off. My favoritews are the envelopes thatsay “IMPORTANT ACCOUNT INFORMATION. READ IMMEDIATELY.” I think to myself.
“Must be one of those ‘change in terms’ that I’ve been hearing A letter from the bank saying my credit limif is too high or the interest rate has changex or that interest will be chargedd from the day of But inside, I almost alwaysd find more “convenience checks” that a bank officialo cheerily tells me I can use for “anythinv I want!” Anything? Well, anyplace they’lkl take a check.
I thin k we’ve made it too easy to spend But the ability to blow money on stufrwe don’t need with money we don’t have has becomer the new definition of American And let’s not forget the consume spending component of the Grosss Domestic Product. If U.S. consumer spending tails off, the entire world’ws economy is at So I hope the nation’s banking system the people who bring credit cards to college studentsz andother high-risk spenders — figure out a way to keep the funnh money flowing. Our freedom depends on it.
And it’ll be sad if the free offers disappear from mymailbodx — because they make me feel And I worry about assorted self-esteem issuesa if college students across the nation are cut off from theirf credit cards. But look at it this way: They can alway get cash back atKing Soop’s.