Students go to universities to gain an education, to discover their interests, to network, and to pursue degrees in their chosen fields of study. It should be a time to focus on academics and perhaps to have some fun. However, students are increasingly being targeted by predatory credit card lenders. Moreover, instead of safeguarding our students, universities and their alumni associations have elected to assist these card-issuing banks in exchange for additional revenue.

Some Universities in Bed Credit-Card Companies

Recently, BusinessWeek has uncovered over two dozen secret contracts between card-issuing banks and public universities. The main offense is universities are selling students’ personal information, typically to the highest bidding credit-card companies. This allows for the card-issuing banks to target their marketing campaigns to students. For example, the Ohio State alumni association worked out a seven-year, multimillion dollar deal with MBNA where the association provided the bank with email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers for their 55,000 undergraduates. Under the contract, the card company was allowed to send at least 5 direct-mail marketing campaigns each year and contact students at least three times by phone each year. (Read more at: Watson Inc)

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{Photography by Euthman}