Students' Credit Cards

Surely you would not want your son or daughter to go off to college without (1) a computer and (2) a credit card. According to the latest press release from Student Monitor, the percentage of students entering college for the first time who have a credit card in their own name has increased. The percentages of students who acquired a card in their own name has grown from 34 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2001 and 48 percent in 2002. Moreover, the percentage of students who had acquired their credit cards before entering college has grown significantly in the past four years, as shown in the table below. As Ruth Simon and Christine Whelan point out in their article in the Wall Street Journal, the student market is "one of the few places where card issuers can find a fresh set of customers each year."

Source: Student Monitor LLC.

Moreover, recent evidence suggests that the market for credit cards among young consumers is still growing. In the "Metropolitan Diary" of the New York Times we found the following: "Lunch conversation between Dave Spector, father of 10 month-old, Grace, and Tim Mahoney, father of 16 year-old, Bailey.

Dave: Grace took her first steps today.
Tim: Bailey used a credit card for the first time today.