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“Free from parental control at last. Now all you need is money. Cha-Ching.”  

And the money Visa is selling is plastic. A credit card Visa calls “the currency of fun.” But instead of using it to have fun, most students are spending the $500 starting limit to cover the rise on tuition and living costs. 

“Students are not just using credit cards to pay for incidentals. They are using them to pay for tuition,” said Shirley Dean, director of marketing at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the East Bay. (Dean is not to be confused with the mayor of the same name.) “We have seen an increase of people in their early 20s looking for help from us.” 

On average, students get their first credit card by the age of 18 and by the time of graduation the same students has acquired at least two more, according to the Consumer Federation of America.  

Most of these credit cards charge an annual percentage rate of 18 to 19 percent. 

”I received about three applications for credit cards at home when I was 17,” said Cassady Winston, a freshman at UC Berkeley. “Now I have two credit cards on my name. I got the first one two weeks after I turned 18. I have a $1,000 debt in credit cards” 

As tuition escalated and student loans jumped sharply in the 1990s, credit card advertisements became increasingly visible on campus, according to a report by Georgetown University professor Robert Manning for the consumer federation. 

The federation also says that 70 percent of students at four-year institutions have at least one credit card. 

“From bookstore inserts to applications strategically placed in dorm corridors, classrooms and cafeterias, credit card advertising campaigns are designed to condition students to accept the use of credit cards as the social norm of college,” Manning says. 

“A particularly disturbing trend is the emerging ‘marriage of convenience’ between credit card companies and universities,” he adds. 

That trend is present at UC Berkeley as well. Credit cards advertisements go into every bag at the University’s bookstore. 

“We put the ads on the bags year long,” said Monica O’Neill, a supervisor at the student bookstore. “At least half of the students pay with credit or debit cards.” 

Heather Milne, a student who works at the Cal Student Store, says that every Friday afternoon MBNA America gives out Cal hats when students sign up for a Visa card that has a picture of the stadium on the front. 

“Most of my friends that have the card signed up to get the free hat,” Milne said. “They don’t use it, but they have other credit cards they use.” 

Nationally, tuition and fees rose by 4.4 percent at four-year public institutions last year, according to a report by the College Board.  

However, in the University of California system, tuition, fees, room and board for state residents remained at an average of $13,233 for the sixth year. At UC Berkeley the same costs are estimated at $15,000, with over $8,000 allotted for on campus housing alone. 

Although student aid has grown faster than tuition in the past decade, the increase has come in the form of student and parent loans, according to Manning’s report. 

“More students are taking out loans,” said Cheryl Resh, associate director of financial aid. “But whether the amount of money being borrowed has increased is hard to say.” 

Regardless of the increase in aid, students at UC Berkeley find they need to use credit cards to make ends meet. 

“I get most of my expenses paid for by scholarships, Pel and Cal grants,” said Narcissus Hogue, a junior at UC Berkeley. “But I still have two credit cards that are maxed out right now.” 

The problem starts when students’ debt begins to exceed 20 percent of their income, said Dean, whose organization offers free workshops on reducing credit card debt. 

“When you can only make the minimum payment or a little bit more, you are in a dangerous situation,” she added. 

Winston, the freshman who got his first credit card a few days after turning 18, has used both of his credit cards to the maximum and only makes the minimum payment. 

“I know they will eventually increase my limit,” Winston said.