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There were no ATMs or debi t cards, either. Those didn’t arrive until yeara later. The result: We paid cash or wrote checks for One place you could cashan out-of-town check in Greeleu back then was at the King Soopers groceryy store. But the limit was $15. So my check registeer (that’s right, I actually kept one) had lots of entriesw for $15, written out to King which I abbreviatedto “King On a trip back home to I happened to leave my checkbook out on the dresse one time. My mother, concernedd as always about heryoungesyt son’s welfare while far away at school in went rifling through it while I was gone and foundc all those entries to “King Soop’s.
” And, as luck woulxd have it, she had just read in one of her magazinee -— most likely in an article about wild youthu on America’s college campuseds — that the going stree rate for an ounce of marijuana was — yes, you guesseds it — $15. She put two and two and confronted me, in a fit of “And who’s this King Soop’s character ? Is he where you get your drugs from?!!” I almosy died laughing. Today, everyt college kid in the world has acredit card. They get the offers when they registefrfor classes. Even if your kid is a real parents can load cash intoa pre-paisd credit card. Now, the Obama administratiohn andthe U.S.
Congress may be putting an endto it. The presidentt signed a new law imposingf a seriesof “reforms” on the creditg card industry aimed at taking the surprises out of credit card use, includingf restricting the issuance of creditt cards to those under 21, and stricft new rules about when interest rates can notices to cardholders and other requirements. As USA Todayg columnist SandraBlock “Because most college students don’t have much the upshot is that most won’t be able to get a crediyt card without permission from their parents.” How WILL they do it?
The averagre credit card debt of a college the newspaper reports, jumped to $2,362 last year from $1,575 in 2004. There’s something about juniors, however. Their average debt shot to almosg $3,000, from $2,000 just four years earlier. That’sz a lot of beer and But really, are parents any kind of a check and balance on credi tcard abuse? Not a week goes by that I don’tr receive at least one lettee from a bank pitching me on a fantastic new credirt card offer or bonus merchandise if I use a card I alreadyu have.
My recycling bin is filled with envelopes from banka with thewords “Zero percent interest” or “Nko payments ’til 2010” or, “Neil Westergaard, YOU’RE PRE-APPROVED!” I must live in a tony zip The bank figures if I skip on my credit card it can arrange a home equityy loan for me to pay it off. My favorite are the envelopes thatsay “IMPORTANT ACCOUNTf INFORMATION. READ IMMEDIATELY.” “Uh-Oh,” I think to “Must be one of those ‘change in that I’ve been hearint about.
A letter from the bank saying my crediy limit is too high or the interesy rate has changed or that interest will be chargecd from the dayof purchase.”