Classes begin here at Ohio University tomorrow. A new group of first year students are headed our way. Most, for the very first time, are out from under their parents’ roof, and, as a result, will experience many new freedoms: the freedom to eat what they want, date whom they want, attend class if they want, sleep as late as they want, do drugs if they want, and…..get credit cards if they want. Here at OU, as predictably as the beautiful foliage in the autumn, the credit card companies set up tables to solicit new (and quite unsuspecting) students. In exchange for some silly thing, such as a tee-shirt, a towel, or a sandwich, students are asked to fill out a credit card application.

The students are completely ignorant of the "terms of the contract" that they sign. Almost without exception, they have no idea what the APR is. They have never heard of "universal default." And they are shocked when they learn that a cash advance costs them more in interest than a card purchase. I know this because every quarter at least one week in each of my classes is devoted to the potential evils of credit cards. When students learn the truth about the "fine print," they are angry to say the least. They feel set up and exploited. "Why," they ask, "doesn’t someone tell us about this BEFORE we get the credit cards?"

And I guess that’s the point of this blog. If you know of a young person who is headed off to college, please talk with her or him about the fine print on credit card contracts. And if you don’t understand the fine print yourself, learn it. And then pass that knowledge on to the younger folks. On campuses everywhere, we stress to our students the importance of eating healthy so that they avoid the Freshman Fifteen; we tell them to drink responsibly and in moderation; we stress the importance of safe sex; we discourage them from skipping classes. But seldom do we stress to them how critical it is to keep their credit good and their credit report clean.