Current efforts in the Kansas Legislature to limit credit card solicitations to university students may be well intended, but they also reflect a certain paternalistic attitude that may not be appropriate for the population they are targeting.
Rep. Rocky Nichols, D-Topeka, has introduced legislation that would prohibit credit card companies from soliciting on college campuses. It also would prohibit selling or providing addresses of students and college employees to credit card companies.
As far as restrictions go, these two seem pretty reasonable. They would prevent credit card companies from setting up tables on campus to pass out applications to students. They also would make it illegal for groups like the Kansas University Alumni Association to sell student addresses to credit card companies for use in their solicitations. (For what other purposes, does the alumni association sell such address lists?)
Many non-students probably also would like to see a similar ban on selling lists that include their names. Students aren't the only ones who get excessive credit card solicitations. The legislation is targeted at students because some observers believe too many students aren't using credit responsibly. That circumstance, however, also isn't unique to the student population. Many other people also misuse credit cards.
Trying to generally curb credit card solicitations may not be a bad idea, but it does seem questionable to specifically target the student population. In most regards, students aren't unique when it comes to credit. Some of them need a credit card; some don't. Some of them can handle it; some can't. Some have parents who can bail them out of debt; some don't have that luxury.
Students, for the most part, are old enough to sign for a credit card and assume responsibility for what they charge. Anyone that age student or not can take on that responsibility. Again, students are not unique.
But it does seem reasonable for universities to refuse to aid in the credit card marketing. Promotions in which companies set up tables to solicit credit applications encourage an impulsive approach to consumer credit, and there's no reason for colleges to allow them on campus.
The bank representative interviewed for Sunday's Journal-World article on this issue contended that her company makes a big effort to educate students on how to budget. That effort, she said, consists of giving students educational materials on credit and finances when they apply for a card, receive a card and in their bills. Most of those materials probably go promptly into the wastebasket and hardly constitute a serious effort at credit education.
The bottom line on this issue probably is that while the state shouldn't paternalistically protect students from credit card companies, neither should the state help promote credit cards to students. That doesn't seem like such a difficult line to draw and drawing it could help take some of the sales pressure off students who may still be gaining experience on how to handle credit card debt.
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