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What happens to debt that people are unable to pay back? A lot of the time, the banks just have to stamp them as uncollectable and write them off. They just give up trying to get those people to pay up. People who owe money and who cannot pay it back have traditionally been able to heave a sigh of relief to know that the bank has got off their case. But not anymore. The banks have found a way to give these uncollectible loans a new lease of life – almost. They call these zombie debt these days.

The bank will usually stop trying to harass you for an outstanding debt once it's tried for six years without success. There's actually a statute of limitations on loans. You're not even legally required to pay a loan back once it's six years past the last time you paid an installment. Shady debt collection companies though are happy to buy the right to collect these loans from the banks for very little money and come after you with renewed vigor all over again – kind of the way zombies get up out of the grave and start to follow you around.

Colleges around the country these days have rules against credit card companies marketing their products on campus. They've found out through long and painful experience that students, if they are allowed credit cards, just use it irresponsibly and then rack up crippling amounts of debt by the time they graduate. To counter this, the credit card companies have come out with something new – they call them prepaid debit cards.

When it comes to marketing to college students, the financial companies are all about prepaid debit cards these days. These are like debit cards, except that they are issued independent of any checking account. What's in it for the issuing companies, you ask? Well, they don't offer many consumer protections, and of course, they're very expensive than with all those fees and charges that they ask for. For instance, they demand fees whether or not you use your card. You pay fees to use the ATM for lots of other things, too.