For the first time since 2017, the total number of college- and university-affiliated credit card issuers did not decrease, but stayed at 133, according to the CFPB’s annual “College Credit Card Agreements” report.
The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act requires the bureau to issue an annual report on the agreements between credit card issuers, institutions of higher education and certain organizations affiliated with such institutions.
In connection with this requirement, issuers annually must provide the CFPB with the following information on the agreements:
• the number of credit card accounts covered by the agreement that were open at year-end;
• the amount of payments made by the issuer to the institution or affiliated organization during the year;
• the number of new credit card accounts covered by the agreement that were opened during the year;
• any Memorandum of Understanding between the issuer and the institution or affiliated organization that directly or indirectly relates to any aspect of the agreement.
The CFPB makes the information provided by issuers available to the public on its website here.
Of the 133 agreements in effect for some part of 2024, 17 were marked as having been terminated over the course of the year.
Those terminated agreements represented about 28,000 open accounts and about $420,000 in payments. Further, five issuers reported all of their 2024 agreements as terminated.
In the report, the CFPB also said that:
- At the end of 2024, there were 559,916 open accounts, with 51,801 new accounts opened during the year. That compares with 550,144 open accounts at the end of 2023. That year, 46,759 new accounts were opened. As a comparison, in 2009, there were 2,041,511 open accounts.
- The issuer with the largest number of accounts had 268,001 accounts open at the end of the year, compared to the second largest issuer with 65,779 open accounts.
- Alumni associations had the largest number of credit card agreements, with 68. Alumni associations also had the largest number of agreements in past reports. Alumni associations were followed by universities with 42 agreements.
Unlike prior CFPB reports, the report did not include any information on other financial products marketed to students.