What You Don't Know... Or, Back To School Credit Card Season

August 17, 2026

It would be an understatement to state that I didn’t have any useful financial education when I began my university career. As September approaches and students are heading back to college and university, I find myself counting my lucky stars and thinking about towels.

It’s very reasonable of you to ask: Why towels?

First off, I needed some towels at university because it hadn’t occurred to me to bring any with me. I was walking through a Sears store and saw some towels that looked really nice. In reality, they were quite nice! Much nicer than what I needed to as a university student. It was early in the school year and I had some money in my bank account so I gathered them up and headed for the cash register.

Along my way, a very friendly woman stopped me and asked me if I would like to save some money on those towels. Sure, I thought. Why wouldn’t I want to save? She explained that all I had to do was to sign up right then and there for a Sears card and the discount would be mine. A smooth few minutes later, I was on my way with the new towels and the Sears card.

I will admit that I didn’t give the Sears card all that much thought after that day. Fortunately, I did pay the towels off before I forgot about the card.

Magical Thinking and/or Financial Naïveté?

Many years later, I was meeting with a banker to talk about mortgages. I was genuinely shocked when he mentioned Sears as one of my creditors. In an instance of magical thinking or financial naïveté, I thought that because I hadn’t used the card in years, it had just expired and gone away.

I really had no idea how credit worked at all. I was very lucky in that. I paid the credit card off in full before forgetting about it, otherwise it would have been accumulating overdue interest, and wrecking my credit score over a period of several years.

And although this story had its origin at Sears, it could just as easily have been at Canadian Tire or The Bay or Amazon or any number of other credit card offerors. When you begin roaming around as a freshly minted consumer, there are plenty of helpful people willing to sign you up for credit products.

It’s likely that the bank that you deal with will offer you a credit card as well. Most of their offers are very appealing, accompanied by incentives that are very desirable to students. Most Canadian students can get a credit card with a $1000 minimum credit limit with no pre-approval.

Credit Education

It is my sincere hope that this year‘s batch of new students are better informed about credit cards, credit scores and financial management in general. My experience, working as a financial educator, does not inspire my confidence in this regard.

One great thing is most of the students I work with are smart enough to be scared of credit cards. They recognize that the spending power they represent can be very alluring and they know they want to avoid getting into unnecessary debt. This is a great mindset to start from.

I created the Canadian Consumer Credit Essentials course to address a critical gap in launching financially responsible young adults: Without a solid grasp of the fundamentals, how are they to identify credible sources from among the deluge of influencers who flood their feeds? And how much will a lack of credit education cost them in the long run?

Back To School Special!

If you or someone you know is in the early years of their financial adulthood, consider sharing this post with them to let them know that there is straightforward, credible and useful information out there.

And as my back to school gift to these young adults, I’m putting the Canadian Consumer Credit Essentials course on sale from now until September 15th.

The sale price is $21.99 - a price that matches the likely interest rate on their first credit card: 21.99%. (and the steep discount is a nod to my fortune in avoiding a financial mishap because of those towels!)

Discount code, applicable to Canadian Credit Consumer Essentials Course (good until September 15, 2026) : POSTSEC21.99