Melissa Bianchi claims she can’t handle a credit card at this stage in her life.

The Sterling Heights freshman would probably go on an irresponsible spending spree, she predicted, if given that certain piece of plastic.

But if and when Bianchi does decide to get a credit card, she said it will be on her terms. And no credit card applications – which she says have been flooding her mailbox back at home – will impact her decision.

“It’s annoying,” Bianchi said, of the mounting applications. “If I want a credit card, I’d go and get it myself.”

Vanessa Oblinger, also a freshman, shared her roommate’s feelings on the issue, saying she has heard about the applications.

“My mother actually warned me about it (at CMU),” the Grand Rapids native said.

Students are subject to receive offers from any number of banks and credit card companies.

A Discover Bank official said the company mails out offers to students “so that they can be able to take advantage of special rates.”

But most banks and credit card companies are beginning to scale back their mailing operations, according to recent studies.

A report by Mintel Comperemedia, a market research organization, revealed that credit card direct mail volume has dropped 19 percent since October 2007. The organization also reported that credit card issuers cut their mailings to current customers by 30 percent last year.

A weakened economy is partly to blame, according to other studies on the topic. Credit card companies are trying to cut costs, and reduced mailing is an effective way of doing that, according to Curtis Arnold, founder of cardratings.com, a consumer advocacy site for credit cards.

“There’s been a growing trend away from credit card solicitations in the mail and toward an online system,” Arnold said.

Along with financial savings, the change is also due to a decreasing response rate to mailings, he said.

American Express is one card that is taking an electronic, hands-off approach – especially with young people.

“We don’t market to students; we’re not on campus or anything like that,” said Monica Beaupre, manager of public affairs and communications for American Express. “Students who might be interested in a card can go to the Web site (americanexpress.com) and apply there.”

That strategy makes sense, Beaupre said, because of the popularity of the Internet.

She said the Web site, like other credit card companies’, is loaded with information, making it more effective than a simple application.

John Gawryk, manager of financial services at CMU, isn’t surprised by an online-based application strategy.

“I could see them going paperless,” Gawryk said. “Is it going to go completely paperless? I don’t think so.”

The mailed-out applications, he said, are intended to interest students in credit cards at an early age. Credit card companies often avoid risk, he said, by enforcing strict spending limits, usually around $500 to $1,000 per card.

But that is still enough to get students in deep financial trouble, Gawryk said.

“Some students have gotten wrapped up, like many Americans today, carrying high levels of debt going through college,” he said. “They’re off buying electronics, video games, food. And now they’re over their head and they can’t make the minimum payments, and the next thing they know, a collection agency is calling them.”

That’s something Andrew Roche, a Grand Rapids freshman, hopes to avoid in his first year of college.

“Credit cards are just a bad idea,” he said.

They do, however, have value in the case of an emergency, Roche said.

But the term “emergency” is subjective, he said, and it becomes more flexible the longer a person owns a credit card.

“Emergencies go from needing a to needing McDonald’s,” Roche said.

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