This space is Occupied/ It's a wonderful life!

     

written in Dec 2011

Recently I was going through my e-mail weeding out the junk that the filters miss and making sure I had n't missed any thing important.

 I saw a message from Sallie Mae, no not my great Aunt, the mega school loan people,   The Subject line said;

A card that can help you pay down your eligible Sallie Mae student loans.  

I ignored it, today I  went back to it - and yes it is a credit card -- Sallie Mae wants to give me a credit card which will supposedly help pay down my debt on my student loan.  What they are counting on is that

I will be so happy to have something that pays down the large debt I carry for being a highly educated art professional that I will just sign up for their card. With no thought, with out realizing that I am just substituting one kind of debt for another.

What kind of fools do they think we are?  They must get plenty of people clicking on the apply button in this e-mail especially at this time of year.   This is just one symptom of the real illness in our economy the banks, loan companies and the Market all depend on creating more ways for us to become indebted to them through loans and credit cards, and bank fees.  

As I read the small lighter type at the bottom of the ad I learned that 

5% Gas and Grocery bonus category rewards are earned on the first $500 total combined net monthly purchases in those two categories. 5% Books bonus category rewards are earned on the first $1,000 total net monthly book purchases

If I become a card member I can charge groceries, and gas up my car and only pay 5% for total combined spending on net monthly purchases up to the first 500.00  this means one maybe two months are covered three if the student is thrifty.

The 5% Books bonus category rewards are earned on the first 1,000 total net monthly book purchases.

Every other purchase earns 1% rewards.

The thing is there is a choice involved .  Students can choose to apply the rewards to their loan payments, they can also get a cash back reward. 

Once that time period is over -- IE once a student has registered bought their books and settled in to school for 2-3 months things change  and only 1%  goes to the rewards program.

After a year the 0% interest rate becomes a variable 11.99 to 15.99.

The fine print also stipulates that the card can be invalidated if not used for 24 months.

This seems like the kind of offer which might work for mature students but for your average college student I am pretty sure that unless their parents are keeping track of the rewards and making sure they are applied to student loans during the first year the whole thing could blow up in their face.  However for those of us who are not always savvy with cards and credit this sounds like a time bomb --