Students, Credit Cards and Financial Independence... Can they get along together? (1)

After the Credit Card Bill of Rights was recently approved, it seems that an interesting discussion has been happening between banks, regulators and credit card holders:

• "Is it correct to regulate interest rates increases and fees we apply if it has an impact on our business?"
  
• "Is it correct not to continue luring students to become credit users by giving them a T shirt as a gift after signing a contract with us?"
• "Is it correct for us teenagers being unable to learn about financial independence but can't have a credit card? "How can we learn if we don't have a credit card?"
  

Even though these questions can make real sense, being my personal goal as a financial literacy advocate to talk about the urgency to spread a global basic financial knowledge, it also implies the need to criticize what I feel is basically wrong when companies commit abuses against credit card holders.

Talking about the Credit Card Bill of Rights and its impact, in my modest opinion, it is rather curious to realize (with all due respect of course) how limited some opinions can be as to the convenience or not to let College students gain "financial independence" if they can't get a credit card arguing that the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 is an obstacle for them.

There is a worrying part regarding the aforementioned opinion because it clearly means a contradiction when Sallie Mae recently divulged a study finding a rising number of college students getting indebted by using credit cards to pay tuition and books.

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Financial Culture / Cultura Financiera
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