Meagan Stout, a junior college student, started receiving credit card offers from banks as soon as she turned eighteen. She usually reads the letters carefully before putting most of them in the shredder by her desk.

But the latest letter that came in the mail attracted Meagan's attention. The envelope contained a plastic card that looked exactly like a credit card. The only difference was that it did not have a magnetic stripe on the back. The promo letter informed the student that she was eligible for $6,500 credit purchase limit. The card could also be used for cash-advances. There was absolutely no interest rate. The card-issuing company was even eager to waive the activation fee if they girl would call and activate the card right away.

That looked like a very generous credit card offer indeed! A credit limit of $6,500 is usually for consumers with good or at least fair credit history whereas Meagan has hardly any credit history at all. "I was really surprised, - says Meagan. - On one hand, I had a feeling that there should be some kind of a trick with such a huge credit limit for someone with no credit history. On the other hand, well, the offer was very tempting".

Excited and puzzled at the same time the girl began reading the fine print on the back of the insert. The more she read the more obvious it became that the credit card offer is far from being generous and, as a matter of fact, is far from being a credit card offer at all.

Even not taking into account the activation fee (which was a little bit less than $200) the terms of the card included a $198.00 annual fee, a hundred dollars security fee, and a quick processing fee. Moreover, this so-called credit card could only be used for purchases of clothing listed in the issuer's catalogue. As for the cash-advance feature (it was actually called ‘cash on demand') it turned out to be simply a payday loan.

Obviously, the marketing strategy for this merchant card was to mislead young people that want to establish credit but are not mature enough to understand all the intricacies of the fine print. These youngsters might end up ruining their credit history thus depriving themselves of the opportunity to get approved for real credit card offers.

One of the reasons for students becoming such an easy game for dishonest creditors is that most of the student credit cards require some kind of credit history. Young people forget that building credit history begins with secured credit cards, credit cards with a co-singer or no credit credit cards with small limit rather then with a $6,500 limit cards.

Fortunately, Meagan Stout was responsible enough to read the fine print and not to activate the card. "I'm glad I took my time to understand everything that was written in that letter. I really hope other students will do the same. No one can take care of our credit history but us!"

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