Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure ActFriday Feb 19, 2010
At this point, you know you need a student credit card when you go to college. We’ve already established that you need to use it responsibly and keep up on your payments. Don’t forget that. Now, you need to know a little bit about the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act.
Congress passed this little gem of legislation to protect consumers from deceptive practices on the part of credit card companies and help minimize individual debt.
The credit card companies are keeping stride, however. These companies are trying to come up with new ways to charge you, the student, because of this Act. The companies say that the new rules they must abide by will cost them billions in revenue. That’s free market capitalism for you. When you open a student credit card or use your student credit card, aside from already being aware of your APR, you need to keep track of your monthly statements for such changes. For instance, inactivity fees may start rearing their ugly head. So, if you only use your card for, let’s say, books during the school year and pay them off immediately, you’ll still be charged for not using your card. If you got your student credit card on a fixed APR because you’re a student, that may change.
So, it looks like student credit cards are a necessary evil. You can’t do anything anymore without having a credit card so you can establish credit. It seems you must incur some amount of debt and keep it. Your personality and actions no longer define you, aside from what you do in regard to credit. Take this little gem of knowledge and put it in your pocket and save it for later. Too bad you can’t use it to pay down some of your debt.

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