"Naïve college students really are / were too young to be baited into these traps" I'm not so sure you can say college students are being preyed upon. While a

"Naïve college students really are / were too young to be baited into these traps" I'm not so sure you can say college students are being preyed upon. While a lot of college freshmen are 17, the majority of college students are over 18 -- the age at which you are considered old enough to enter into legally binding contracts in most U.S. states. Sure, you can argue that students rarely read the fine print and are taken in by the way credit cards are marketed on campus ("get your OWN credit card -- your parents won't see the bill!") But the way credit works is pretty clear and simple to the point where it's almost universally understood, even if you don't read the fine print: They loan you some money; you have to pay it back; wait too long and you have to pay interest on it. It's that last part that some people willingly ignore. Honestly, I think the way you use credit has everything to do with the way you were raised. My wife and I both got our first credit cards in college. A decade later and we still pay off our cards in full every single month. Why? Because that's how our parents did it. If you can't pay off the balance at the end of the month, you don't buy things.