While credit card companies are taking steps to reduce lending and are cutting credit limits on some of their best customers, it appears that they are still wooing students and encouraging them to create new credit card accounts.

Some states have become so alarmed over the growing debt incurred by students that they are pushing legislation to crack down on card issuers targeting students.

Texas, California, New York and Oklahoma have already passed laws restricting or regulating the marketing of credit cards on college campuses.

In Illinois, pending legislation would ban free gifts with credit card offers on college campuses and prohibit the selling of student information from colleges to credit card lenders. It would also require financial literacy education for freshmen students at schools that allow credit card marketing.

Lawmakers are concerned that aggressive and often predatory practices by credit card companies are targeting students with little financial sophistication – and plunge them into debt that will be difficult to repay.

In 2008 the U.S. Public Interest research Group completed a study at 40 college campuses. They learned that 25% of students had paid a credit card late fee, 15% had paid an over-limit fee, and 6% had already had one or more credit cards cancelled for nonpayment. This event, of course, puts a 7-year black mark on the student’s credit report, making it difficult for them to obtain needed credit after graduation.

Along with offering free gifts for making application, some credit card issuers are promoting rewards cards geared specifically to youth. The rewards include travel, cash back on bookstore purchases, and merchandise rewards such as CD’s, videos, and movie tickets.

While this attempt at a crackdown is taking place, lawmakers are also taking notice of the need for financial literacy among younger students. Legislation is pending in various states to require financial education in high schools. In Virginia, it has been law since 2006.

The President’s Advisory council on Financial Literacy was created by President Bush in January 2008. As a result of testing conducted last year, it recommends requiring schools to teach financial education in grades K-12, and requiring college students to take a financial literacy course in order to receive federal student loans.

The Council also recommended tax incentives for employers who teach workers about money management, creation of a federal financial literacy website, and making a debit-card-accessible bank account available to every adult American.

The goal of these recommendations is a future generation and a current population armed with sound money management skills to make good decisions for themselves and their families.

It’s about time that our government got involved with the excessive spending of Executives, after the US treasury bailed them out. In my opinion it is very distasteful that these executives are still living the lives they are after all the turmoil in our financial market. I still blame government for the deregulation, which is primarily the Republicans parties fault. They are the ones that pushed for deregulation, and guess what that did to our banking system? Well, by now you can figure that out just by watching TV or reading the local news paper.

Greed is mainly the problem, I don’t care where you graduated from and what your GPA was, no one is worth what these CEO’s and executives are getting paid. I am sure you have heard these big investment bankers saying they are concerned about scouting talent with the “new cap” on income for companies that the government bailed out. The cap will be $500,000 a year. Hmmmmmm I guess I could live on that, if I did not have a yaught, 3 mansions and a Ferrari.

I think our country needs a real wake up call; we are extremely spoiled and blessed at the same time. Being in lending I have learned that money brings out the worst in people. Where there is lots of money, there is lots of GREED.

Even though I did not vote for Obama, I am impressed with what he is doing. I believe he is in the right direction on some matters, especially when it comes to politics in Washington.

Credit has never been more important these days, and hopefully the American people will just be happy with what they have. You never know, “when what you currently have” “might end up being what you had.”

So with all of this being said, make sure you are saving your money, staying on top of your credit. This might even be a great opportunity to learn a new trade through your local college. As markets that are hot change over time, there will always be new hot ones. I would have to say the next hot market will be the web.

Just make sure once you make it to the top that you are not like the rest of greedy America, be very thankful for what you have.

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