Message to college freshmen: beware free promos
Everyone that has been to a college campus before is familiar with the scene. Booths line common areas offering students free promotional items in every color, shape and size. While the offers look tempting and free pizza sure sounds like a good deal at lunch time, the hidden hooks behind a free piece of pie can have life-altering effects for many students. Just sign here on the dotted line, please.
Corporations are preying on our young adults by offering pre-approved credit cards, cell phone plans and other contracts with free promotional items that can drastically affect their future credit scores if not managed properly. Students need to learn what to watch out for and to carefully read the contracts they sign for short-term benefits. Financial illiteracy crosses all borders and is a global problem. Here is a great article from Canada that addresses this very issue.
Filed under: Money Tips, News
Sharon,
I think you bring up a great point in this post that most college freshmen, and more so the general college population have no clue about.
Educating this market about the predatory practices is essential to getting these young adults on the right track to a more stress free financial life.
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
[...] Sharon Lechter | Message to college freshmen: beware free promos http://www.slechter.com/message-to-college-freshmen-beware-free-promos – view page – cached Everyone that has been to a college campus before is familiar with the scene. Booths line common areas offering students free promotional items in every color, — From the page [...]