By now many college students are back on campus, if not in class then settling into their dorm rooms and getting ready. Among their books, bed sheets, new clothes and other necessities will be quite often a credit card. Sometimes with the parents name on it, sometimes just the students own.

Nearly 75% of all sophomores, juniors and seniors have maxed out at least one credit card. Nellie Mae's survey in 2000 showed 23% of all freshmen and 92% of all sophomores had at least one card in their pocket.

I don't need to lecture you on the danger of giving a credit card to a college student who is working part time and going to school full time. The average student will earn a bachelors degree with $30,000 in student loan debt and nearly $3,000 in credit card debt. Not good. I recommend a debit card for the simple reason that when used, you are only using money you already have. When you swipe the card across the terminal at the store, the information is transmitted to your bank which then takes the money out of your account. Ta-da, no debt. Of course if you have automatic overdraft protection this feature is worthless. AOP extends you a loan instead of bouncing the check or debit card transaction.

A big drawback is the lack of theft protection. If the card is stolen, you have two days to report it, or else you are liable for $50 of unauthorized charges. This jumps to $500 if you don't discover the theft. If you wait over 60 days, forget getting your money back. To boost use of their cards, Visa and MasterCard are promising that they won't hold users liable for unauthorized usage. These cards carry the appropriate company logo and don't require a PIN number for usage. You sign a receipt just like a credit card, only the money will be removed from your account in a day or two.

I could go into detail about how a credit card works, and how you can use a debit card for cash withdraw from ATM machines, but I don't need to.

The best method of paying for purchases by college students is still cash. But for those who want the convenience of plastic, the debit card is the next best thing. So if you gave your college student a credit card this year, take it away and replace it with a debit card. And then hold the student accountable for their purchases and go over their transaction record a couple times a semester.