Colleges Profit as Banks Market Credit Cards to Students

I’m still here working. And as long as I am, I’ll keep blogging. The New York Times looks at the connection between credit-card issuers and colleges. Colleges sign multi-year deals that give card issuers access to students’ names and addresses, allowing them to pitch cards directly to students. In some cases, colleges and universities make even more money when students carry balances on their credit cards. Shameful. From the New York Times:Hundreds of colleges have contracts with lenders. But at a time of rising concern about student debt — and overall consumer debt — the arrangements have sounded alarm bells, and some student groups are starting to push back.The relationships are reminiscent of those uncovered two years ago between student loan companies and universities. In those, some lenders offered universities an incentive to steer potential borrowers their way.Here at Michigan State, the editors of the student newspaper wrote this fall that “it doesn’t take a giant leap for someone to ask why the university should encourage responsible spending when it receives a cut of every purchase.” The almighty dollar has a way of creating nice conflicts, indeed.