Students are an attractive target group for credit card issuers. Very often you can see numbers of students gather at centralized locations (beaches, parks), so that credit card companies can arrange advertising campaigns for student credit card offers. Recent surveys showed that:

• nearly three-fourths of former college and high school students continued to hold their first credit cards for more than 10 years after graduation;

• about 63 % of senior students have minimum 1 credit card;

• 21 % hold four or more cards.

Credit cards are a convenience. However, very often people face too high charges for it: an interest rate and a bunch of fees can sometimes darken the benefits of a credit card and make it hard to cope with.

In many cases, when searching for a plastic, people are eager to find best credit card offers with no fees and evaluate bank products by the fees they have. Of course, most consumers would like to obtain a credit card without any fees. Is it really possible and what fees can be detected with a bank offer?

If you asked a question how you could possibly start building credit when you do not qualify for any credit card you apply for, a financial advisor would prompt you to become an authorized user, a person attached to a good credit customer's account. With access to a good credit account and permission to use it, a person could quickly boost their credit scores and give a start to their credit history.

However, some time ago, Fair Isaac Corp., detected numerous cases of abusing this practice and was determined to refuse consideration of authorized user records in calculating their credit scores.

The fraudulent use, know as Piggybacking, was a smartly organized business of illegally selling good credit accounts to customers with limited or damaged credit.

Lots of credit cardholders are increasingly getting another hit by major card companies, the reason being the necessity to make huge write downs to cover credit card and mortgage losses. This time, consumers are not experiencing a hike in the interest rates - that's a closed chapter already. It is the limit on their credit card that is being reduced, making the already tight credit less available.

Banks and credit companies are occupied with keeping default rates at their lowest so as to maintain their profits at a decent level. Thus, they've become choosier as to what limit amount each of their customers actually may qualify for. Keeping more money in house is now the key strategy of most major issuers. So, watch out and see how you could avoid being affected.