Released: October 11, 2007

Countering credit card marketing on campus

Source: Paul Wenske, Kansas City Star (Free Registration)

Campus credit-card marketers are out of control and entrapping students into years of debt, say a national consumer group and a coalition of college officials and student leaders.

Students lacking financial savvy are barraged by credit-card offers starting their freshman year, said Becky Timmons, an official with the American Council on Education. She spoke at a news conference Wednesday in Washington.

Led by the consumer group U.S. PIRG, the coalition launched a national campaign to pressure colleges to halt a trend they say is increasingly burying students under credit-card debt that averages $2,000 to $4,000 and haunts students long after graduation.

They want colleges to adopt principles banning freebies and blocking credit-card issuers from obtaining lists of student names. They would also create more financial education courses and prohibit credit-card issuers from negotiating marketing deals with student groups. The campaign is financed by the Ford Foundation.

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