Time is a critical factor in the fast-paced lives of college students. Most students plan ahead no further than the end of the day. Furthermore, many students have never lived on their own before college. Thus, meals are often paid for by credit card at fast food restaurants. Expensive textbooks are charged to the card. Movie tickets, presents for friends or wardrobes for dates are all usually paid for with plastic. Vendors wisely attempt to target this consumer base by advertising most of their products in a way that will appeal to college students. Additionally, stores and fast food restaurants allow college students to pay with credit cards, based on the principle that credit is easier to attain than cash.
Soon after receiving a university diploma, most college students will aspire to buy a home. Credit cards provide students with the early opportunity to create a negative or a positive credit history. If a student always make a point of limiting the amount he spends as well as paying the minimum balance on his card, he is more likely to be a candidate than if he never carried a card. As with bank loans and property rental contracts, credit card activity documents the financial behavior of a student. Additionally, when a couple marries after college, their credit histories will be considered jointly should the couple apply for a home loan.
Monthly credit card payments motivate many college students to seek employment. While jobs provide students character-building experiences, jobs are commonly time-consuming as well. Instead of being able spend the afternoon studying for an astrophysics exam, a frazzled student may only be able to cram in the middle of the night after an evening shift at a store in the mall. Nevertheless, with such motivation, students are sometimes able to make important strides. Thus, a student who is majoring in business at a local university may be supplementing his academic learning with real-world learning as an employee at a local bank.
Parents of college students are able to rest easy knowing that their child can use a credit card in emergency situations. Many parents worry knowing their child is hundreds if not thousands of miles away, vulnerable to a host of adversities. However, with a credit card, a student can be easily funded with the financial means to resolve most of life's challenges. A student no longer needs to call home for MoneyGrams and, if her car breaks down on a snowy day, she can easily pay to get it towed.
While credit cards allow college students to easily purchase online goods and services, they also increase the likelihood for these students to become victims of identity theft. In fact, college students comprise one of the most frequently targeted groups for ID theft, due in large part to the fact that credit card companies desperately seek the business of these students. Often, students will be deluged with pre-approved card applications via junk mail and will simply throw this mail in the trash. With a tiny bit of wise research, a criminal can activate such an application. Additionally, students often make use of community computers to negotiate online transactions or even go so far as to lend their credit cards to acquaintances when they're in a financial pinch. Without realizing the need for safeguards, many students fall into the trap of positioning themselves as ID theft victims.