The credit card companies are back.

But they never left. Companies like Citibank, Visa and MasterCard are eager to replenish college student spending habits with a new line of credit. With warmer weather, the tables are beginning to line the sidewalks of campus once again, and the companies have kept an ample supply of posters plastered on the inside of every classroom and lecture hall.

They’ve come to lure students with cheap gimmicks like complimentary T-shirts and baseball caps and the promise of free money.

The process of obtaining so-called "free money" or credit is almost too easy, especially if you’re a college student with no income. All you have to do is fill out a credit card application, sign on the dotted line and open up an envelope to find a shiny, plastic card that you can verify over the phone. The companies are making it easier then ever to rack up a bill and go broke.

The credit card companies target college students as potential customers because they know the students are vulnerable to their scams. Most students don’t have a regular income, if they have one at all. They could always use some extra spending cash for the weekends, and a credit card is the easiest way to buy whatever you need without emptying out bank accounts. It is an easy solution when students are short on cash.

How many college students actually know how credit cards work? It's a simple process: if you don't pay your bill in full each month, interest will be added onto it.

But this effortless process can become complicated when you take into account other possibilities.

How much interest could you end up paying on a $2,000 bill? If you paid the minimum payment of $40 per month, you will end up paying $6,000 in total interest over the course of 30 years. You can find yourself with a huge debt including thousands of dollars in extra charges with interest, late fees, bounced checks, finance charges, cash advances and stop payment fees.

Each company has different rules governing fees and interest, so if you have several credit cards, you can become confused between your charges and the extra fees on each bill. The credit card companies won't help you to understand your bills until you ask, and even then they will find a way to twist their words to make a big debt seem smaller.

Obviously, free money ceases to exist, and the companies seem to have mastered the art of empty promises. This process often leaves students free to rack up a huge bill of miscellaneous expenses that they never needed in the first place.

The average college student graduates with $2,226 of credit card debt and graduate student debt runs about $5,000 as reported by the National Center for Financial Education in 1997.

The easy way out of these debts seems to be to file for bankruptcy; it erases debts with the exception of student loans. This serves as a short-term solution to a serious problem but in the long run bankruptcy ruins your credit record, and maybe your life.

The number of people under the age of 25 filing for personal bankruptcies has risen sharply from 1 percent in 1993 to 5 percent in 1998, said the American Bankruptcy Institute.

So what is so bad about ruined credit? You may not be able to get another credit card for years following bankruptcy. Even when you are extended a line of credit, you may be required to have a co-signer, and have huge interest charges. Home mortgages will be hard to come by, since you obviously can't pay bills when they are due, and don't count on getting a loan for a new car anytime soon.

However, credit card companies cannot be held accountable for mistakes of its customers. It is still every student's responsibility to keep track of his or her bills and pay for the debts. They charged their Abercrombie purchases and late night pizzas on their credit card, so they better pay up.

We live in a materialistic society, a society that rewards people who own fancy cars, chic wardrobes and huge mansions. People tend to associate their worth as individuals with the number of credit cards in their wallet and how much money they earn every month. Americans have this idea that they'll be liked or respected more if they buy that BMW or a new Kate Spade purse.

If you decide to sign up for a credit card at one of the many tables set up around campus, read the application before you sign it, realize that an introductory interest rate of 5.9 percent doesn't last forever; within a few months it jumps to almost 20 percent.

Don't forget the fine print.