Student credit card appeals draw criticism

Aggressive peddling of credit cards has become pervasive on college campuses, with students pursued via mailings, phone calls and on-campus pitches that often use school organizations to break down resistance, a consumer group said Thursday after a survey of students.

College students receive an average of five mailings and four phone calls each month urging them to apply for credit cards, U.S. Public Interest Research Group found in its survey of more than 1,500 students at 40 schools in 14 states.

About one-quarter of students surveyed reported paying late fees, 15% paid over-limit fees and 6% had a card canceled because of delinquency.

“This report shows the extent to which credit card companies are using aggressive marketing tactics to take advantage of college students faced with increasing prices for tuition, textbooks and other college-related expenses,” U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said in a statement about the survey.

The report also criticizes methods it says credit card companies commonly use to reach students, including “renting” from campus organizations tables set up to introduce students to school activities and using the tables to solicit credit card applications.

Typically, the student club gets a flat fee or a commission for every application completed, the report says. Club members may also be offered a commission to get friends, roommates and neighbors to apply for credit cards.

The report also condemns agreements that some card companies have with alumni associations through which the card issuers gain access to students’ names and addresses. The report doesn’t say how prevalent those accords are.

Credit card companies also entice students to apply for cards by offering free sandwiches, T-shirts and baseball caps, the report says.

Ohio Atty. Gen. Marc Dann, who participated in a news conference on the study’s results, recently sued Citigroup Inc.’s Citibank unit and two other companies over coupons for free sandwiches offered to students on campuses in Ohio. The coupons didn’t make clear that students would get the food only if they completed a credit card application.

Citibank said a marketing company it hired had created the advertising.

“The practices alleged in the complaint are not approved Citibank practices and if true they were not condoned nor authorized by Citibank,” the company said in a statement.

Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said colleges should adopt standards that would bar school groups from promoting cards, prohibit alumni associations from selling private student information and ban giveaways and the posting on campus of credit card fliers.

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kathy.kristof@latimes.com