{"id":1968,"date":"2014-08-05T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/dos_and_don_ts_for_college_bound_tudents\/"},"modified":"2020-08-20T14:51:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T14:51:52","slug":"dos_and_don_ts_for_college_bound_tudents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/dos_and_don_ts_for_college_bound_tudents\/","title":{"rendered":"Dos and Don&#8217;ts for College-bound $tudents &#8211; National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- content_before_flip_start --><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/92_college_movein_.jpg\" alt=\"92_college_movein_.jpg\" \/>Millions of young people are arriving on the nation\u2019s college campuses this month\u2014finally, life without parents for the first time for many! Unfortunately, many of these young people will be entering the consumer marketplace with little understanding of how to navigate it successfully\u2014credit cards? utility bills? rent? And even worse\u2014many students may fall prey to scams targeting college students.<!-- content_before_flip_end -->Whether they are heading off to college, a job, or to their first apartment, young adults should keep these dos and don\u2019ts in mind this fall:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO read the fine print. <\/strong>While credit card companies are now largely prevented from offering their wares on college campuses, there are still many \u201cgotchas\u201d lurking out there for unsuspecting consumers. Those gotchas love to hide in the fine print of things like apartment leases, gym memberships, cell phone contracts, student loan applications, spring break vacation package agreements and yes, credit card applications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T sign anything until you understand your responsibilities.<\/strong> Will you be locked in to that gym membership for years to come? Does that free t-shirt come with a credit card that has a high interest rate and annual fee? How much will it cost to break the lease on your apartment if your roommate unexpectedly moves out and leaves you with the full month\u2019s rent?<\/li>\n<li><strong>DO make sure you have contact info <\/strong>(the phone numbers or Web addresses for services that can help) if you get in trouble. The local Better Business Bureau, Office of Tenant Advocate, and state and local consumer protection bureaus are good numbers to have handy if you feel that a local business or landlord is taking advantage of you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DO create a budget and stick to it. <\/strong>Create a list of all the expenses you\u2019ll be responsible for, like books, regular meals, rent, and transportation. That way you\u2019ll have a system to help make sure nights out with friends don\u2019t eat in to you required living expenses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T leave personal information unsecured. <\/strong>While young consumers may not have a lot of money to drain from bank or credit card accounts, their credit reports are often clean. This makes them tempting targets for identity thieves. File away important documents, shred credit card offers and keep a close eye on credit and debit card statements for suspicious charges.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DO watch out for scams targeting young people. <\/strong>For example, educational grant scams regularly make Fraud.org\u2019s list of top scams each year, suggesting that scammers may be going after students looking for ways to pay for college in a tough economic environment. Watch out for scams that promise \u201cguaranteed scholarships\u201d or \u201can inside track on getting money for college.\u201d Also stay away from any service that requires a credit or debit card account number to apply for or hold a scholarship.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T leave your social network privacy settings unattended. <\/strong>Scammers scan these networks for information they can use to pitch believable-sounding scams. It usually only takes a few minutes to set privacy settings to make them more secure. Many college students may be surprised to find just how much of their personal information they were sharing in the first place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Consider these tips the beginning of your journey to becoming a savvy consumer. Remember that the good consumer habits you develop as a college student can yield benefits in school and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether they are heading off to college, a job, or to their first apartment, young adults should keep these dos and don\u2019ts in mind this fall:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13974,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/13974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}