Credit card companies stuff offers into your books, your mail boxes, and they even have nice looking guys and gals handing out T-shirts at the football stadium. They offer you all sorts of free stuff and all you have to do is exercise your newly granted rights of signing that agreement on the dotted line.

You rationalize that "it's free" and think "the card doesn't hurt me if I don't use it." But credit card companies know that the probability of you using the card is 10 to 1. Without taking on the ethical question of how credit card companies lure you in, here are a few serious points to consider before falling victim to the seemingly great offers.

You won't be getting the same deal your parents are, trust me. Even if the "low introductory rate" is 0%, you can get hit with interest rates of 20% or higher if you miss a payment.

Talk about interest rates--late payment fees can exceed the cost of the item you may have purchased with your card and can trigger a higher interest rate that you didn't even know was there because you did not read the fine print.

This stuff is intentionally placed where only those with a magnifying glass can find it. Even if you read the small print, can you afford to pay off your credit card each month? More than likely you are going to get stuck making minimum payments.

Making the minimum payment on a credit card with even a modest balance can take up to 20 years to pay off. Meanwhile, you have paid for that free T-shirt about a hundred times over in interest. Too bad you are still wearing the one you got at the football game. Hope you enjoy it.

Here is some food for thought before you decide to sign on the dotted line.

1. Coming into college, 54% of freshman have credit cards. That number jumps to 92% by the time they reach their sophomore year. (Nellie Mae, April 2002)
2. It's hard to stop spending. College student credit card holders are diving deeper into debt with high balances averaging between $3,000-$7,000, up 61% since 2000. (Nellie Mae, April 2002)
3. More than 150,000 young adults will file for bankruptcy this year. (International Herald Tribune)
4. Pay the minimum each month on that $2,000 balance at 20% interest and by the time you pay it off you have paid $4,280 in interest charges.
5. Next time you start to charge something, ask yourself if you would still purchase the item if the price was twice as much. That is what you end up paying by not managing your credit cards correctly.