Spring Break for College Students and Credit Cards

Spring break is quite literally the holy grail for credit card marketers. Students are already a favorite demographic for card issuers because they tend to be active credit users with a lot of brand loyalty. Spring break brings together large volumes of students from across the country in centralized location. When you add alcohol, impaired judgment and freebie give-aways; the credit card issuers can't lose.

Offering a free t-shirt or some other ten cent give-away, credit card issuers can potentially get tens of thousands of students to apply for credit cards over spring break. Of course, each credit card application damages the student's credit score with a hard inquiry. If approved for the card, the student is stuck with the card on their credit report for seven or more years even if they cancel the account a few months late. I wonder how many students return from spring break with five or six brand new credit cards in their name.

Hard to believe? Pretty ridiculous? The producers of the The Daily Show agreed! The news satire show did a segment on the prevalence of spring break marketing last year called "Beach Ploys." You can watch the must-see clip staring Dan Bakkedahl online here for free.

Comments

[Jim G]

I admit when I was in college I fell into the ploy of signing up for credit card offers and got a free t-shirt for my trouble. My decision at the time was to build up some credit history because at the time I only had one high rate student credit card and felt I needed extra history. To this date though, two of the four are still open, never used, but their credit lines help offset my debt to credit. Good, bad, either case I was still able to buy a car and my house. Credit card companies that prey on college students need the next generation debt to survive as much as students want and misuse credit 'so they can buy'. The Comedy Central bit always hits on the subject very creatively, I thought it was funny. Spring Break for many (not ALL) students is about having fun and worring about the costs later. Just my two cents... plus interest.