One thing I hear a lot about college students is that 1) they never have any money and 2) they use their parents credit cards. I worked full time while I went to school, and many of my classmates had part-time jobs or paid internships, so I don't know how true those two statements are. What I do know is that books are expensive and some students have to pay for their books out of pocket. No one wants to carry around $500 dollars or more in cash; it isn't safe, especially with things the way they are now. Credit cards come with the added burden of fees and interest rates, but pre-paid credit cards don't, and they allow anyone to carry as much as $2,500 safely and securely. Companies like AchieveCard make buying books for school much safer and more convenient.

For students who work or have paid internships, all or part of their paychecks can be direct deposited to their cards so they never have to worry about adding money to them. Plus, there's the added benefit of knowing that once a purchase is paid for with a pre-paid debit card, it's done. No bills will be arriving in their or their parents' mail boxes. No collections agents will call about missed payments. That brings up another good point: Parents can more easily control their children's spending limits with pre-paid debit cards. If they only load $200 dollars onto the cards, then $200 is all their children have to spend. It's impossible for them to exceed their spending allowance, which might help them to learn how to budget their money better.

For safety, convenience and staying out of debt, an AchieveCard pre-paid debit card is the way to go.