Keeping College Kids From Credit Card Trap

Ray Martin On How To Prep Them For Handling Their Financial Affairs At School

(CBS) 

Another popular form of using a credit card to get cash is to charge the expenses for a group of friends and have your friends pay their portion of the costs in cash to you. The idea is that you will hold onto the cash and use it to pay for the items charged to your card. The problem is that the cash they give you never finds its way to your credit card, because you quickly spend it. Then you are stuck with no cash and a large credit card balance, with additional interest charges.

About one-in-four college students report charging a portion of their college tuition to their credit cards. This is clearly not a smart move, since credit cards come with higher interest rates and terms that are not as favorable as other education loan options. Students who need to borrow to pay for qualified tuition costs should instead use education loans, which come with lower interest rates, built-in deferment of payments, and money saving consolidation programs to use to pay off these loans after graduation.

Finally, parents need to understand that their son or daughter can apply for a credit card without any parental permission. Parents who want to supervise their offspring's usage of a credit card should never sign up as a joint owner with their son or daughter for the card -- that is an invitation to credit problems and identity theft for both the parent and student when a student's credit card is lost or stolen. Parents who want to monitor their son or daughter's use of a credit card can get set up to receive duplicate statements or set up online access to view the account activity.

In addition to credit cards, college students and their parents will have a number of financial decisions to make:

Guide to the Financial Tools and Decisions Facing Students and Their Parents:

Checking Accounts

Even if they never write a check, students will need a checking account. That's because these accounts provide for daily withdrawal demand from ATMs and by debit card. The most frequent transaction by a student will be using a debit card and hitting up the ATM for cash. Look for an account at the college credit union or local bank, to avoid the $1 to $3 transaction fees for using out-of-network ATMs. Title the account in the student's name with a POD to the parents - POD means “payable on death”. Avoid the overdraft credit, which only encourages spending money that isn't there and is sure to rack up more fees when used. Parents who want to monitor their student's spending can set up online access to the account and request that they receive duplicate statements. With Web access, parents can even transfer money online to their student's account on a scheduled basis, or as needed.

Student ID

At many colleges, the school-issued identification card doubles as a smart card, which can be used for prepaid expenses such as meal plans, and can be linked to a local bank account and used as an ATM/debit card. It's recommended that students keep ID separate from their bank account for two reasons: It keeps expenses covered by parents separate from the student's other spending money, and avoids losing access to the bank account when the student ID is lost or stolen.

Health Care Proxy and Living Will

I advise parents to make sure their student completes a Health Care Proxy and Living Will. With these advance directives in writing, you will never be in a position to have to make these decisions in an emergency. Although anyone can get these forms and complete them on their own, I advise that parents arrange a meeting with their child and an attorney to do it. Also, students with assets should think about either jointly titling assets with their parents or getting a will.

Health Insurance

A parent's employer-provided health plan typically covers dependent students while they attend school full-time, up to age 25. Parents and students need to inquire about how the student's medical coverage applies to the student when at school or abroad. They also need to know how they are covered when using the college infirmary or out-of-network medical service providers. Also confirm that co-payments and out-of-pocket costs will continue to be eligible for reimbursement from flexible spending plans.

Calling Home

Most college students have cell phones, and parents often complain about cell phone bill shock! To help avoid surprises, compare cell phone plans at sites such as BillSaver.com and MyRatePlan.com. Before you buy, check to see if the coverage on campus is good at sites such as Cellreception.com. Also, consider prepaid phone cards that offer low-cost rates -- these are a good idea for budget-minded students and their parents. Also, consider a cell phone plan with large buckets of minutes for evening and weekend use. They provide virtually unlimited use and lower costs when use is restricted to those times.

Road Trip

When a student is taking a car off to campus, I advise parents to transfer the title to the student's name, requiring them to register and insure it on their own. That protects the parent from liability, and is also educational for the student. It's also a great idea to require the student to take two courses: basic auto maintenance/repairs, and defensive driving education. They can pay for themselves many times over by avoiding common repair scams, promoting safe driving skills, and reducing insurance premiums.

[avigil2]

It''s always good to start estabishing your credit while in college but you should be required to obtain a job to pay off your credit card. Credit card companies want to bury these college students in debt even before they get out to earn a good living (if that''s even possible these days). I got caught up in it myself and took me years (over 10) to get out of it. BE AWARE kids!

[johnstossel]

Credit card companies are like a bunch of hungry crocodiles. Don''t fall into this trap.