Student Celebrate New Credit Card Protections

CALPIRG

Date: February, 22, 2010

For immediate release

Contact: Amanda Read

Cell: 908-892-2618

Office: 949-824-6385

Students Celebrate New Credit Card Protections

PRESS RELEASE

Student volunteers from U Mass Boston praised new federal credit card protections that go into effect today.

The Credit CARD Act (Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act) was passed last May. The new law offers young adults additional special protections in response to complaints of aggressive bank marketing, as well as shields all credit card holders from unfair bank and lending practices.

“The campus marketplace is cleaned up,” Karla Vitocruz, a student volunteer with CALPIRG said. “The era of aggressive hawking of cards with really bad terms is gone for now.”

Educational costs on campus are rising, and college students have relied on credit cards for tuition, transit, and even tuition. Meanwhile, credit card companies increasingly targeted students, as well as other vulnerable populations like seniors, with credit products that contained high penalty interest rates, fees, and other hazards.

Now, the average senior graduates from college with close to $3,000 in credit card debt.

The new rules that impact students include:

Protections for 18-21 year old consumers. Banks treated young adults differently than those older; issuing credit cards without verifying ability to pay, which left some young people mired in debt or trapped with bad credit due to non-payment. The new law treats young people the same, seeking proof of ability to pay or a co-signer.

Protections for college students. Credit card marketers offered “free” gifts like pizza and t-shirts, to students who fill out an application at on-campus tables. No more. Students can take the freebie, but they can’t be forced to fill out an application for a card.

Disclosure of college agreements with credit card companies. Any college that has an exclusive agreement with a credit card company for an affinity credit card that displays the school mascot or name on it must disclose details of those contracts publicly, as will the credit card companies.

On campus, volunteers distributed consumer education guides to students with the new rules. “Students should know that high fees and in-your-face credit card marketing are things of the past,” noted Vitocruz.

For more information on the new rules, visit www.truthaboutcredit.org.

# # #

CALPIRG is a statewide, non-profit public interest organization, with chapters at eleven campuses in California: Visit www.calpirgstudents.org for more information about CALPIRG’s Getting to Graduation Campaign.

California Student Public Interest Research Group

www.calpirgstudents.org