Credit-Card Contracts Show How Colleges Can Profit From Student Debt

An examination of 17 affinity agreements between credit-card companies and colleges by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reveals how colleges are required to provide banks with students’ names, addresses, and telephone numbers, and in some cases make additional money when students carry a balance on their credit cards. The details of such deals, long popular as revenue sources for alumni groups, were largely unknown until last year’s credit-card-reform legislation required their disclosure. The Huffington Post’s investigative arm is recruiting student journalists to help track down more affinity agreements with the country’s largest universities.