A DEFINITE plus of the new federal credit-card law are the curbs established for soliciting new college-age customers.
Too many young people on campuses nationwide have become buried under mountains of debt because plastic money was just too easy to get. Then their parents feel compelled to bail them out.
The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 will make it harder for credit card companies not only to actively solicit applicants on campus but also to sign up young cardholders with doubtful resources for making payments.
Any parent who's ever been on the hook for their child's credit excesses has to welcome this.
The law will prohibit credit card companies from enticing college kids on campus with freebies, such as T-shirts or pizza, just to fill out card applications. The campus promotions, once widely practiced to lure gullible youth into charging their life away, have declined since the credit crisis last year but students still receive solicitations by mail and in person by credit vendors.
That is supposed to end in February. The new law will also prohibit card issuers from signing up anyone under 21 who either doesn't have a co-signer or the demonstrated ability to pay.Because students' bad debts, like all credit defaults, end up being paid in the long run by responsible card holders, the measure could be good news for millions of Americans during these hard economic times.
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