Many times when it is mentioned how much credit card debt college students carry, the credit card companies’ strategy is hardly examined beyond the fact they offer free goodies to get students to sign up. This article looks at how some companies are pursuing unethical tactics to get students cards, even when they don’t qualify. HEre’s an excerpt:

Ryan Rhoades, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh last year with more than $13,000 of debt, remembers his credit-card company’s employees telling him not to worry about being unemployed. Lukasz Kozoil, formerly a student at DePaul University, says that Citibank’s representatives told him to fill in his tuition on a card application where it asked for income. (A spokesman for Citibank says, “no representative from Citi is authorized to fill in tuition cost on a credit-card application.”) Woodworth got his American Express card without a job, and it had a credit limit of $6,000. “Within three months, they upped it to $10,000,” he says.

Ryan Rhoades, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh last year with more than $13,000 of debt, remembers his credit-card company’s employees telling him not to worry about being unemployed. Lukasz Kozoil, formerly a student at DePaul University, says that Citibank’s representatives told him to fill in his tuition on a card application where it asked for income. (A spokesman for Citibank says, “no representative from Citi is authorized to fill in tuition cost on a credit-card application.”) Woodworth got his American Express card without a job, and it had a credit limit of $6,000. “Within three months, they upped it to $10,000,” he says.

read more | digg story

Thanks to Slevinat Flickr for the photo!

• Weekly Round Up: Support Your Friends Photo Credit:  angela7dreams Another week has flown by and I'm happy it's Saturday.The sun is out and warming up.  My friend isin town for a visit and we're having a good time. We invited some of our newer friends over to meet her and relax. Today we took her downtown......
• Carnival of Personal Finance #211: Burn Notice Edition Welcome to the 211th Carnival of Personal Finance! this week's theme is based on a new favorite show I've been catching up on: Burn Notice.  If you're not familiar with the premise, the main character, Micheal Westen, has been let go as a spy is trying to figure out why.......

• Embarcadero Cove Marina Embarcadero Cove Marina is located in Oakland, CA. Phone: 510.532.6683 View Larger Map Website: N/A Wet Berths: 109 Average Depth: 13 feet - however, please call ahead to the harbormaster to get the current data before making the trip. What You Need to Know Is There a Marine Standby Channel?......
• How to Pay Off Your Card Credit cards create for their users a cycle which is vicious: charging for items when you do not have the money, and then finding it very hard to make the payments due to high interest. The average, in the middle, debt that is held by an American is over eight......