Although the bill of rights of credit card holder provide protections for all Americans, there are some amendments that specifically designed to help prevent racking students thousands of dollars of debt while still undergrads.
First, there is much stricter limits on the amount of credit that can be offered to a student by an issuing bank. A student without co-signer is limited to the greater of 20% students yearly income or $ 500. While this may limit some students access to credit, it ensures that the individual is not put in a position where they have more purchasing power they are reasonably able to pay. We believe this should help students develop the most positive credit usage patterns and avoid piles of unpaid withdrawal liabilities.
Then, banks are prohibited from providing incentives for exchange students fill out a credit card application. Anyone who has spent time on a university campus in the last two decades, knows how the current practice of providing incentives such as t-shirts, mugs, hats or even bars candy in exchange for signing up for a credit card. We see this as a positive step in that it removes a degree of frivolity the signing process for a credit card.
Finally, banks must disclose the terms of the so-called "affinity agreements" between the bank credit card issuers and universities. These agreements usually give a bank exclusive rights on credit cards on the market with the college or university logos to students and alumni, in exchange for marketing costs. What is good for many reasons, but probably the most important has to do with privacy. Often the affinity agreements allow banks to access large amounts of personal information and we think it is good that this part of the Bill of Rights allows students to know exactly how their information can be used by some thirds.
You can learn more about credit cards for students and tools for monitoring credit reports and scores in reading our reviews and comparisons of the colleges.