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| State Treasurer Wants to Crack Down on College Credit Card Salesmen |
The state treasurer is pushing legislation to rein in what he calls deceptive marketing practices by credit card companies on college campuses.
Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has drafted a bill that he says will address the problem of a proliferation of credit cards on college campuses, with disastrous results for the financial health of the students. He says students without any verifiable income are enticed by gifts that are no more than "trinkets," such as a T-shirt or a free lunch, to get credit cards, and then build up and carry balances that cost them thousands of dollars over time.
The bill, to be introduced in January, would:
* Ban card issuers from offering gifts when they market cards on campus
* Ban the sale of personal information about students by universities, their foundations or their alumni associations
* Require state universities to disclose marketing agreements with banks that target their students. Those agreements now are often confidential because the agreement is with a private foundation or alumni association.
* Require universities that allow marketing and advertising of credit cards on campus to conduct financial literacy education for freshmen.
The problem that this legislation is intended to address is demonstrated by a 2005 survey by NellieMae, an education financing corporation: Fifty-six percent of college seniors carry four or more credit cards with an average balance of $3,000, in addition to student loans.
Giannoulias announced his legislation at a press conferences Tuesday in Chicago, at the University of Illinois in Urbana, and at Illinois State University in Normal.
Sponsors of the bill are State Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago) and State Rep. Kevin Joyce (D-Chicago).
(Source: Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 09 09 08 by Newsroom |
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