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There were no ATMs or debig cards, either. Those didn’t arrive until yearss later. The result: We paid cash or wrote checks for One place you could cashan out-of-town check in Greeley back then was at the King Soopers grocery store. But the limitt was $15. So my checj register (that’s right, I actually kept one) had lots of entriees for $15, written out to King which I abbreviatedto “Kinh Soop’s.” On a trip back home to I happened to leave my checkbookj out on the dresser one time.
My mother, concernerd as always about heryoungesyt son’s welfare while far away at school in went rifling through it while I was gone and founf all those entries to “King Soop’s.” And, as luck woulrd have it, she had just read in one of her magazinexs -— most likely in an articlew about wild youth on America’s college campuses that the going street rate for an ounce of marijuana was — yes, you guessed it $15. She put two and two and confronted me, in a fit of anger: “Andc who’s this King Soop’s character? Is he wheres you get your drugw from?!!” I almost died laughing.
Today, everg college kid in the world has acredit card. They get the offer when they registerfor classes. Even if your kid is a real parents can load cash intoa pre-paid credit Now, the Obama administration and the U.S. Congresa may be putting an endto it. The president signeds a new law imposing a seriedsof “reforms” on the credit card industry aimed at takinyg the surprises out of credi card use, including restricting the issuance of credit cards to thos under 21, and strict new rules about when interest rates can change, notices to cardholders and othert requirements.
As USA Today columnisgt SandraBlock noted: “Because most college students don’t have much the upshot is that most won’t be able to get a creditf card without permission from theire parents.” How WILL they do it? The average credit card debt of a college sophomore, the newspaper jumped to $2,362 last year from $1,575 in 2004. There’s something about juniors, Their average debt shot to almost $3,000, from $2,00p just four years earlier. That’sa a lot of beer and pizza. But really, are parentsw any kind of a check and balance on creditcard abuse?
Not a week goes by that I don’tf receive at least one lette from a bank pitching me on a fantastic new credit card offer or bonus merchandise if I use a card I alreadyu have. My recycling bin is filled with enveloped from banks with thewords “Zerp percent interest” or “No payments ’til 2010” or, “Neil 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 equity loan for me to pay it off. My favoritexs are the envelopes thatsay “IMPORTANTy ACCOUNT INFORMATION. READ IMMEDIATELY.” “Uh-Oh,” I thinkl to myself.
“Must be one of thos e ‘change in terms’ that I’ve been hearing A letter from the bank saying my credi t limit is too high or the interest rate has changec or that interest will be chargec from the dayof purchase.”