Students just have to key in their user name and password to gain free access to a Web-connected computer. But the internet is more than just a valuable, time-saving learning resource, it is a market-place. The problem is that to do more than just window shop, you need a credit card.

"Students are very much into technology and the internet. They can buy tickets online from Ticketmaster or flights from Ryanair with a credit card, but they don't want to have to rely on their parents - especially the fourth years," says Ms Caroline Gleeson at AIB student banking.

"Students were saying to us: 'We're the ones who are online, we're the ones who want to shop online'," agrees Mr Patrick Farrell, marketing manager for customer recruitment at Bank of Ireland. Parents also want their grown-up, college-age kids to have a credit card in their own name to make life easier when booking accommodation overseas.

At the beginning of the last academic year, AIB and Bank of Ireland introduced student credit cards, with Bank of Ireland's most recent research showing that 18 per cent of students now have one.

Both products have strict credit limits - €320 at Bank of Ireland and €400 at AIB - and students must be over 18 to apply and provide a parental guarantee. The transactions are online and directly check against the credit balance in the account to prevent students going over the limit.

In practice, students would have to have a substantial income to be able to afford a credit card. At Bank of Ireland, the student must have been a customer for at least six months and have built up a credit history, with sufficient turnover going through the account.

"It's not in our interest to lend a product to any customer if they're going to get into debt. We have to be very prudent about how we lend," says Mr Farrell. Students have been prudent in return: 85 per cent will clear their balance at the end of each month, compared to 50 per cent of standard cardholders.

Laura Slattery