If you’ve ever been on a college campus or you’re planning on jumping on one in fall, there’s one thing I guarantee you’ll see there and that thing will be credit card companies.  Credit card companies will do everything in their own power to sign up for a credit card in hopes that you use it, abuse it, and become a customer of theirs for life.  I”m going to show you a few techniques on how the companies try to lure you into signing up for your first credit card.

The free t-shirt game

Have you ever been to a sporting event or any event for that matter that has a little white tent set up with XXL T-shirts available?  Chances are you’re answering yes.  These tents are the tents operated by the card companies like Visa and MasterCard.  Their goal is to get you to come to that both and sign up for a credit card.  In return, you’ll receive a t-shirt that doesn’t even fit.  The problem with this method is that you usually don’t know what kind of card you’re getting and if there are any fees associated with it.

Getting free food

This is a very common one among the towns near college campuses.  You’ll go out to eat and you’ll casually walk into a college campus and see some laptops set up.  You’ll be greeted by a credit card representative that will simply ask if you would like a free sandwich?  The only catch is that you’ll have to sign up for a credit card on their laptop.  Since most college students are poor, they will take advantage and sign up, not knowing how this can affect your credit score in the future.

Sponsored speeches/Events

This one may not seem as bad as a pushy tent salesperson but you may find yourself attending events in the area that are sponsored by big companies and this may entail a “persuasion speech” that may lure you to sign up for a credit card.  Since most of these sponsored events aren’t that bad, I wouldn’t worry about this one that much.

All of the above points mentioned above aren’t good when it comes to getting a credit card for the first time.  The reason this is true is because you want to do your research since there are hundreds of cars out there.  Are you going to go out and buy the fist car you see?  Of course not!  Don’t do the same thing with your credit cards.