Read this new report by U.S. PIRG about how banks market debit cards on college campuses — cards that come with significant fees. The gist is that banks pay colleges big bucks via "paid marketing agreements" that give the banks the right to market student card accounts that will receive certain funds, such as student loans. The banks then in turn profit handsomely from the fees imposed on students' use of the cards. The report found that "[s]tudents at schools with a paid marketing agreement with a financial account provider [bank] paid 2.3 times as much in fees as students at schools without a paid marketing agreement." Go here to learn more about the PIRG study.
And over at the Washington Post, Daniel Douglas-Gabriel has written this story on the PIRG report, which notes "that College students paid nearly $25 million in fees on campus-sponsored debit cards last year as banks struck lucrative deals with universities to offer financial products to largely low-income populations."
