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Buy It on Credit and Be True to Your School

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FIN3400 FINANCIAL MGT. BLENDED 475507

Ethics Case 1
Buy It on Credit and Be True to Your School
1. Should universities enter into agreements to offer affinity credit cards to students?
In my opinion, I say no! Universities should not enter into agreements to offer affinity credit cards to students. Credit card companies are promoting through a number of channels to reach students. They offer select affinity card arrangements intended to bypass marketing limits.

Universities are founded to prepare students to enter the real world. Universities were not founded to make profit, they are an institution for education. Where students go to learn, and the student should not be used as tools for profit. Consequently, educational institutions shouldn’t enter into agreements to offer affinity credit cards to students.

KEY FINDINGS

Examination of affinity agreements involving some of the nation's largest and most prestigious colleges revealed that schools and alumni associations:

• Sell students' personal information. Many are contractually obligated to share students' names, phone numbers and addresses with banks.
• Earn royalties: Banks typically pay schools $1 for each student who keeps a credit card open for 90 days. When students carry a balance, some schools can collect up to $3 more per card.
• Cash in each time a student uses plastic: Many schools are entitled to receive 0.4 percent of all retail purchases made with student cards.
• Benefit from marketing incentives: When a university or alumni association agrees to market cards to students itself, the payoff is greater -- sometimes up to $60 for each card opened through a school's own marketing.
• Offer special perks: Banks sometimes gain special access to athletic events. Cornell University must provide Chase Bank with tickets and "priority" parking passes at football, basketball, hockey and lacrosse games.

2. Whether or not a university has an affinity credit card, does it have an obligation to educate students about credit card misuse and debt management?
Yes, universities have the obligation to educate students about credit card misuse and debt management. The landmark credit card legislation signed by President Obama one year ago curbed some marketing tactics on campuses but didn't prohibit the arrangements between colleges and banks, known as "affinity" agreements. Young freshmen, on their own for the very first time, become new credit card users can quickly fall behind on payments.
However, Credit card usage among college students is falling, according to a Washington Times report. Generally, the number of students with credit cards declined from 42 percent in 2010 to 35 percent in 2012. Of the students who still hold credit cards, 33 percent carry no balance. This is because of the ongoing education about credit card misuse and debt management.
"Universities should place the welfare of their students as their highest priority and shouldn't sell them off for profit," said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, or PIRG.
3. Does the existence of an affinity credit card create a conflict of interest for a university if and when it adopts an education program on credit card misuse and debt management?
Absolutely not, a conflict does not exist when the university adopts an education program on credit card misuse and debt management. For example, before you purchase an automobile, you have to take driver’s education. Driver’s education, educates the driver about certain dangers they may face and what to look out for so that they can at least avoid the unavoidable. One must be educated about whatever risk they will be undertaking. Regularly students and candidates pay their tuitions with their credit cards. Especially, students at universities that have affinity cards, these kind of cards affect the students even more detrimentally than the other credit cards. Students want to support their school, so when they see a card that is affiliated with their school, they think it’s ok to get that card, because their school wouldn’t be looking to make a profit off them –they need to think again!

4. To what extent are students themselves responsible for their predicament?

If we are talking about an 18 years old teenager, I will not hold them responsible at all. They are simple trying to pay for school and traverse through the 4 years of being on their own. Some of those credit card agreements are written in such convoluted lawyer speak – not even lawyers can understand them. Moreover, if the debt comes from an affinity card, I think the responsibility lies with the university and the banks and not the student at all.

• Protess, B. and Neumann, J. (2011, May 05). Banks paying colleges for students who rack up credit card debt. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/08/banks-paying-colleges-for_n_604109.html
• Larkin, K. (n.d.). Average credit card debt for a college student. Retrieved from http://creditcards.lovetoknow.com/Average_Credit_Card_Debt_for_a_College_Student

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