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By Rachel Mauro “We’re telling students ways to stop all the junk mail, ways they can go online to get free credit reports,” ways they can keep from being duped into signing up for cards they don't need, said Chris Leutchen, MaryPIRG campus advisor, as he and others handed out official brochures and "don't be a sucker" lollipops at the Stamp Student Union. "We're not against credit cards; we're against some of [the companies'] practices," he said. They include enticing students to sign up with "freebie" gifts or coupons and not explaining that the forms they are filling out activate credit card accounts, he said. Rachel Levy, a junior public health major at Maryland, said that she was “suckered” into getting a credit card last semester that she later had to cancel. “A girl in the dorm was handing out free T-shirts,” Levy said. “A few months later, I got all of this mail; I wish I’d never gotten it.” Levy was one of several students handing out materials at the event. They encouraged their peers to sign a petition to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, calling for an end to "aggressive marketing." MaryPIRG is one of 39 student PIRG chapters educating students about credit cards on campuses across the country.
"We think colleges can be catalysts, change agents," Mierzwinski said in a teleconference Wednesday morning. "The changes colleges make will put pressure on companies to change their practices more broadly." The U.S. PIRG Education fund also set up a Web site at TruthAboutCredit.org. The site will be home to research projects over the next 18 months, detailing the ills of marketing to young people. Students "come to our campuses with very little financial sophistication and savvy," said Becky Timmons, assistant director of government affairs at the American Council on Education. "The overwhelming changes they're experiencing at that time can make them vulnerable to undertaking credit they may come to regret." According to statistics on TruthAboutCredit.org, balances among college-age consumers have increased by 134 percent in the last decade. The average senior is graduating with around $4,000 in credit card debt, the organization says. Mierzwinski said communication in general between credit card companies and consumers is a "David vs. Goliath experience." He added, "You'd probably need a 38th grade education to understand" some of their policies. Visa, MasterCard and American Express do not issue cards on college campuses, spokesmen for the companies said. Samuel Wang, a spokesman for Citigroup, said vendors who market Citibank credit cards "are required to comply with all applicable laws, including advertising laws, as well as university regulations and industry guidelines." Mark Scarborough, vice president of acquisitions at Discover Financial Services, said in a statement that the company stopped marketing on or near college campuses nearly a year ago. "We share the interests of states, colleges and students to make sure students use their credit wisely and develop good credit histories, and are committed to providing the tools and tips to help them maintain good credit," the statement said. As part of its campaign, PIRG will go directly to university administrators to urge them to set up contracts with credit card companies, banning practices like marketing with free gifts or going into semi-private places, like dormitories. John Farley, assistant vice president for administrative affairs at the University of Maryland, is sympathetic to restricting the range of credit card companies on campus. "I understand the problem; I have two college-age students myself," he said. "If there's some way the university can put standards on or be more controlling of them, we should be." Andrew Friedson, student body president at the University of Maryland, commended MaryPIRG for its educational efforts. Students “might not realize everything that's going on with debt and potential long-term ramifications that can come of bad credit and debt,” he said.
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She explains how a credit card vendor used a "freebie" to get her to sign up. (mp3 file)