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89–958 PDF 2003

S. HRG. 107–987

THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL

LITERACYAMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON

BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

THE ADEQUACY OF THE LEVEL OF FINANCIAL LITERACY AND EDUCATION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS; THE CONSEQUENCES OF A

FINANCIALLY UNDEREDUCATED STUDENT BODY; THE ROLE THAT

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CAN PLAY IN PROMOTING FINANCIAL

EDUCATION AMONG THEIR STUDENT BODY; THE ABILITY AND EFFICACY OF A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITIES TO ESTABLISH LIMITS ON SOLICITATION OF ITS STUDENTS; THE APPROPRIATENESS OF CERTAIN

MARKETING TECHNIQUES ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES; AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO

ACCUMULATE EXCESS CREDIT CARD DEBT

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

(

COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS

PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland, Chairman

CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota

JACK REED, Rhode Island

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York

EVAN BAYH, Indiana

ZELL MILLER, Georgia

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware

DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan

JON S. CORZINE, New Jersey

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii

PHIL GRAMM, Texas

RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama

ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah

WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming

CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska

RICK SANTORUM, Pennsylvania

JIM BUNNING, Kentucky

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho

JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada

STEVEN B. HARRIS, Staff Director and Chief Counsel

WAYNE A. ABERNATHY, Republican Staff Director

AARON KLEIN, Economist

DARIS MEEKS, Republican Counsel

JOSEPH R. KOLINSKI, Chief Clerk and Computer Systems Administrator

GEORGE E. WHITTLE, Editor

(II)

CONTENTS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Page

Opening statement of Chairman Sarbanes ........................................................... 1

Opening statements, comments, or prepared statements of:

Senator Dodd .................................................................................................... 3

Prepared statement ................................................................................... 39

Senator Johnson ............................................................................................... 6

Senator Gramm ................................................................................................ 7

Senator Carper ................................................................................................. 8

Senator Bayh .................................................................................................... 9

Senator Corzine ................................................................................................ 10

Prepared statement ................................................................................... 39

Senator Reed ..................................................................................................... 10

Senator Akaka .................................................................................................. 40

Senator Bunning ............................................................................................... 40

Senator Stabenow ............................................................................................. 41

WITNESSES

Louise Slaughter, a U.S. Representative in Congress from the

State of New York ................................................................................................ 11

Robert D. Manning, Ph.D., Caroline Werner Gannett Professor of the

Humanities, Rochester Institute of Technology ................................................. 14

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 41

Ellen Frishberg, Director, Student Financial Services, Johns Hopkins

University ............................................................................................................. 18

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 54

Natala K. Hart, Director, Student Financial Aid, The Ohio State University ... 21

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 58

Michael E. Staten, Director, Credit Research Center, McDonough School of

Business, Georgetown University ....................................................................... 23

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 81

Jonathan Miller, Treasurer, The Commonwealth of Kentucky ........................... 27

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 89

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUPPLIED FOR THE RECORD

College Students and Credit Card Fact Sheet prepared by the Senate Banking

Committee Staff ................................................................................................... 95

Consumer Bankers Association Press Release, dated September 5, 2002 .......... 96

Letter to Senator Paul S. Sarbanes from Daniel A. Mica, President & CEO,

Credit Union National Association, dated September 5, 2002 ......................... 97

Newsletter submitted by The National Consumer Council .................................. 99

Statement of Kelly Presta, Vice President, Visa U.S.A., dated

September 5, 2002 ................................................................................................ 103

U.S. Public Interest Research Group Press Release, dated September 5, 2002 . 104

Statement of Eric R. Weil, Managing Partner, Student Monitor LLC, dated

September 9, 2002 ................................................................................................ 105

(III)

(1)

THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL

LITERACY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC.

The Committee met at 10:10 a.m. in room SD–538 of the Dirksen

Senate Office Building, Senator Paul S. Sarbanes (Chairman of the

Committee) presiding.

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN PAUL S. SARBANES

Chairman SARBANES. The hearing will come to order.

Today, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

returns to the issue of financial literacy. This hearing, which focuses on college students, is another in our ongoing series. We first

began last February, when we held two hearings and heard from

a number of distinguished witnesses—including the Secretary of

the Treasury, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and the

Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and many

more—all of whom called for increased financial education and

awareness.

Following up on some of the specific topics raised at those initial

hearings, we held two subsequent hearings, each exploring an issue

that had been previously touched upon: One, the financial literacy

of the unbanked, those who lack the benefits access to the mainstream financial institutions provides, of whom, of course, there are

a significant number across the country; and two, the financial literacy of immigrants and the immigrant community, many of whom

send money back to their family in their country of origin, and

often pay exorbitant fees to do so. In fact, the President of Mexico,

in a meeting with President Bush, placed that issue high on the

agenda for discussion, in the accurate perception that if these fees

were more realistic, the amount of, in effect, private economic assistance coming into Mexico would significantly increase. Today, we

will focus on the importance of financial literacy among college students, specifically with regard to the use—and possible misuse—of

credit cards.

My colleague, Senator Dodd, is to be commended for his leadership on this issue. He introduced legislation, S. 891, the Underage

Consumer Credit Protection Act of 2001, that seeks to protect persons under age 21 from creating serious financial problems through

the misuse of credit cards. Senators Corzine, Akaka, Stabenow,

Schumer, and Enzi have also been active on these issues of financial literacy. In fact, Senators Corzine and Akaka spearheaded the

2

successful effort to attach language to the recently passed education bill which will enhance the ability of primary schools across

the country to teach financial literacy to their students.

Now the timing of this hearing is not accidental. This month,

more than 13 million young people seeking a post-secondary education will go ‘‘back to school,’’ where many of them will be faced

with making significant personal financial decisions, often for the

first time in their lives. This hearing is intended to serve as a

signal to these young people who may be eager to have access to

credit without fully understanding the responsibilities that credit

brings, and also to send the message to those who are eager, perhaps too eager, to make that credit easily available.

The responsible use of credit is essential to the efficient functioning of our economy, but it is increasingly clear that many young

people are ill-prepared to handle credit responsibly. President Patrick Swygert of Howard University, testifying on behalf of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, raised this point at our

February hearings. He observed that: ‘‘If used responsibly, credit

cards allow students to build up credit histories that facilitate increased access to credit in the future.’’ He warned, however, that:

‘‘If college students have not learned financial management skills

in their secondary education, or from their parents, and if they

misuse their credit cards or mismanage their credit card debt, the

disadvantages far outweigh any supposed advantages.’’

For many Americans, college is the time when they first enter

the financial system. Unfortunately, studies show that most college

students lack the financial knowledge necessary for a smooth

entry. Americans for Consumer Education and Competition, a nonprofit institution, in the year 2000, reported that 82 percent of high

school seniors failed a 13-question personal financial quiz. Eightytwo percent. The situation is not improving. The Jump$tart Coalition, which

promotes financial literacy efforts at the K through 12 level, released a study this year that found that: ‘‘High school seniors know

even less about credit cards, retirement funds, insurance, and other

personal finance basics than they did 5 years ago.’’

Despite their lack of financial literacy, incoming college students

are reportedly inundated with offers for credit cards. A recent article in the Kansas City Star, entitled, ‘‘Credit Card Hawkers Nest

on College Campuses’’—I love those headline-writers——

[Laughter.]

‘‘Credit Card Hawkers Nest on College Campuses,’’ reported that:

‘‘Like it or not, credit card hawkers are just as much a part of campus life as fraternities, sororities, and homecoming games.’’ According to Nellie Mae, which provides student loans, the vast majority

of college students, 83 percent, have at least one credit card. The

GAO reports that over half of college students acquire their first

credit card during their first year in college. The research suggests

that most college students have credit cards, but, yet, lack the

basic financial knowledge to effectively and efficiently use them.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that many students build up

significant credit card debt without fully comprehending the consequences. According to the Department of Education, in the 1999–

2000 school year, 45 percent of college students had a balance due

3

on their credit cards, with a median balance of close to $1,450, and

an average balance above $3,000. This has led many colleges and

universities to consider what role they can play in helping their

students achieve a smooth entry into the financial system.

Today, we are very fortunate to have an excellent panel of witnesses in order to discuss these issues. I will defer introducing the

panelists until we have had an opportunity for other Members to

make their opening statements.

Congresswoman Slaughter, I know you have come to present one

of our witnesses. I will just inquire, does your time schedule permit

you to wait until we complete our statements here before doing so?

Representative SLAUGHTER. I would be happy to hear them.

Thank you.

Chairman SARBANES. Good. We are very pleased that you are

here with us.

Senator Dodd.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD

Senator DODD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Let me commend Congresswoman Slaughter. She has been a terrific financial literacy advocate. She is not just here to introduce a

witness, but she also, has introduced a companion piece of legislation in the House. There are some differences with the bill that I

have introduced and the one that she has introduced. But she has

been a real leader along with John Duncan, a Republican Member

of the House, in this area, and I want to commend her for it.

And Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you——

Chairman SARBANES. We will refrain from asking whether the

differences are better or worse.

[Laughter.]

Representative SLAUGHTER. We will work it out.

Senator DODD. I am sure that that will emerge.

Chairman SARBANES. That will emerge in the course of the discussion.

[Laughter.]

Representative SLAUGHTER. We can fix it.

Senator DODD. It is fixable, however.

[Laughter.]

First of all, let me thank you, Mr. Chairman, and our witnesses

for being here. This has been an issue that I have been deeply interested in for a number of years, since some of the earlier data

began to emerge. And I think it is important at the outset to say,

look, having students with credit cards is not a bad thing at all.

In fact, credit cards have been a wonderful asset for lot of people,

allowing them access to consumer goods and activities they never

would have been able to have if not for the use of credit cards.

I do not want this hearing or my position to be construed in any

way as anti-credit card. It has been a wonderful asset. And there

are many financial institutions which do a good job. This is not an

indictment of all financial institutions and how they handle credit

cards. However, the ugly reality is that some of these companies

do abuse the credit card system, and unfortunately, a lot of vulnerable young people are taken advantage of. And as a result, we have

seen an escalating increase in the amount of consumer debt among

4

young people, burdening them even before they begin their adult

lives with financial obligations that make it very difficult for them

to get underway.

So, this hearing and our legislative proposals, despite what the

opponents of it have tried to suggest, is not in any way designed

to stop or to discourage the use of credit cards among young people,

but really, to inject a dose of reality in terms of what is happening

on college campuses all across the country.

The headlines that the Chairman used, while they may seem creative and clever, in fact describe very accurately the situation in

far too many cases.

And so, it is an important time to conduct this kind of a hearing

and to once again raise the issue. We voted on this in the past on

the floor of the Senate, and to the credit of the credit card companies, they are able to muster the votes every time to defeat even

reasonable legislation designed to inject some degree of financial

literacy into the debate. But we will not stop from trying to see if

we cannot improve the situation.

Let me just mention a few things, if I can.

Incoming freshmen in college are woefully unprepared, in my

view, to handle the ordinary financial obligations that come as a

result of entering college. And for the first time, graduating high

school seniors and incoming college freshmen are presented with

new opportunities and confronted with difficult decisions that will

affect them for the rest of their lives—access to large amounts of

credit, primarily through the use of credit cards. Most new students lack the financial sophistication necessary to handle the

terms and conditions associated with credit card use.

Making credit available to help finance the pursuit of higher education is something that we all recognize as vital, and credit cards

can play a very important role in that. However, the predatory

practices of some credit card companies and the failure to ensure

that college students recognize the long-term consequences of incurring these debts is a serious and it is a growing problem.

The fact of the matter is that some financial institutions view incoming college freshmen as shooting fish in a barrel when it comes

to credit card solicitations. Financial institutions have become more

concerned with ‘‘branding’’ than forming responsible financial relationships with new consumers. They are more interested in luring

students with offers of low minimum payments, free T-shirts, and

other giveaways than caring about whether or not the prospective

customers can reasonably handle their credit obligations.

Earlier in this Congress, as noted by the Chairman, I introduced

the Underage Consumer Credit Protection Act of 2001. It would require that credit card issuers, prior to granting credit to persons

under the age of 21, have one of the following—not all of them but

any one of the following: A co-signature of a parent, guardian, or

other responsible party; an independent means of financial support

for repaying their debts—not an outrageous or radical suggestion,

I would offer—the debts that they would incur; or the completion

of a certified credit counseling course. Any one of those three and

you get the credit card. Not all three, but any one of the three.

Financial institutions, in my view, must take a closer look at individuals to which they are extending credit, and this bill would do

5

just that by requiring a responsible and realistic approach to providing credit.

When we raised this issue in the past, we were flooded with inquiries from parents all across the country who are horrified about

what is happening in too many cases where they incur the obligations as a result of what their children have signed onto without

their knowledge, they are stunned by what is going on. So this is

designed to encourage a greater degree of responsibility.

Better education makes up only part of the equation that will

help us achieve our goal of financial responsibility. It is important,

I think, as well to remember that we should not only encourage

financial institutions to better educate the consumers, especially

those receiving credit for the first time, but we must also remind

financial institutions that they have an obligation, in my view, to

make credit decisions that are realistic and responsible as well.

We are facing a looming financial crisis in this country, an explosion in the levels of consumer debt and an increase in personal

bankruptcy rates. Credit card use has played a significant role in

the rapid increase in indebtedness in our Nation. In a Washington

Post editorial on Sunday, David Broder cited a biennial report conducted by the Economic Policy Institute. The Economic Policy Institute report exposes the rising levels of consumer debt incurred by

middle Americans during the 1990’s. According to the data collected by the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board, debt

during the 1990’s rose from 80 percent of disposable personal income to well over 100 percent. One in seven middle-income households were spending at least 40 percent of their income on monthly

payments and one-sixth of their income on reducing debts alone.

Dramatic increases in debt, coupled with the slowing of economic

expansion that we have experienced in the past 3 years, has begun

to force significant increases in the number of personal bankruptcies. In fact, the Consumer Federation of America reports that

1.45 million personal bankruptcies last year alone—this was the

all-time high—largely driven by credit card use within the last 10

years. In my home State of Connecticut, personal bankruptcies increased by 42 percent between 1994 and 1999, and those numbers

are expected to increase when the next reports come out.

As the bankruptcy reform legislation is being debated in conference, I believe we should reexamine the potential adverse effects

of this piece of legislation. This bill would have an unintended adverse impact on the most vulnerable in our Nation, including the

children of those who file for bankruptcy, and the hard-working

families faced with extraordinary financial challenges and others

who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.

So as we continue to explore ways to better improve the financial

literacy of our Nation’s younger consumers, I also think that we

have an obligation to be vigilant in encouraging the responsibility

of financial institutions. That, unfortunately, is not the case in far

too many of them.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you again for holding this hearing and

I am anxious to hear what our witnesses have to say.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you, Senator Dodd.

Is it correct that the three things you mentioned were part of the

alternative, in terms of getting a credit card?

6

Senator DODD. It was either show you have the financial ability

to pay, have a parent or guardian co-sign for you, or be willing to

go through some credit counseling course so you would know what

your obligations would be. Any one of those three.

Chairman SARBANES. Any one of the three.

Senator DODD. Any one of the three.

Chairman SARBANES. Right.

Senator Johnson.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM JOHNSON

Senator JOHNSON. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this

hearing on the importance of financial literacy among college students. I also want to thank our distinguished witnesses for taking

time to join us today, and a particular welcome to my former colleague, Representative Slaughter, a wonderful friend during my

years in the House, and continues today. This hearing is indeed

timely, with millions of students returning to school this month.

Financial literacy should be part of any complete education, and I

commend you, Mr. Chairman, for highlighting the importance of

this issue.

As I have noted in previous hearings on financial literacy, part

of what makes our Nation great is the opportunity that we all have

to make something of ourselves. Equal credit opportunity is an important aspect of achieving the American Dream. Likewise, I believe the ability to finance a college education provides important

opportunities for success. In fact, last February, I was pleased to

be able to secure passage of legislation that will allow students and

their parents to receive student loans at affordable interest rates,

that legislation now signed by the President. This was a big step

in ensuring that young Americans have access to college education.

The topic of today’s hearing is equally important. While credit

cards provide important opportunities for our young people, it is

critical that these students have the financial education to use,

rather than abuse, those chances. While students must take responsibility for their own finances, credit card companies have a

role to play in helping American students use credit responsibly.

This year, my daughter Kelsey will be a junior at the University

of South Dakota. As a father, I am glad that Kelsey has access to

a credit card, and I have been pleased that she has used her credit

card responsibly. I am sure that my threat to call her up as a witness on irresponsible credit card use before the Committee has had

nothing to do with her prudent spending habits.

[Laughter.]

And I would share with the Committee that she has an older

brother who went through some painful experiences about the wisdom of credit card debt. Even so, based on her experiences, I can

relate a number of good reasons for students to have access to a

full array of banking services, including credit cards.

Credit cards enable students to build a credit history, to learn

about credit and build financial management skills. A good credit

history is important for being able to rent an apartment or finance

a car. It can also help with job applications.

7

Also, credit cards provide a mechanism to pay for school supplies,

such as books in anticipation of seasonal income or a student loan

disbursement.

Another good reason for students to carry credit cards is security.

I know I feel better that my daughter has access to money in case,

for example, her car breaks down. Also, having a credit card means

that she doesn’t have to carry as much cash with her.

At the same time, of course, problems arise when students fail

to use credit responsibly. Today’s witnesses have provided important evidence of these problems in the written testimony and in Dr.

Manning’s books. I am also concerned about the volume of credit

card solicitations, and believe that students shouldn’t be showered

with credit offers that they did not request.

Although I am not an advocate of the devil-made-me-do-it school

of personal responsibility, I do believe that the emphasis should be

in other directions rather than restricting credit available to responsible young people, and I believe that continued emphasis

needs to be placed on financial literacy programs.

A good financial education can help people make better decisions

throughout their lives, whether it be the choice between a fixed

rate or adjustable rate mortgage, or whether to buy or lease a new

car. I applaud financial literacy programs offered by a number of

organizations, including nonprofit groups such as the Jump$tart

Coalition, public sector organizations, and large credit card issuers.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for calling attention to the role that

financial literacy plays in ensuring that our college students understand basic money management and I look forward to hearing from

our distinguished witnesses.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much, Senator Johnson.

Senator Gramm.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR PHIL GRAMM

Senator GRAMM. Well, Mr. Chairman, first of all, let me make it

clear, I am for financial literacy. In fact, I wish everybody had to

take a course in economic literacy before they voted, much less got

a credit card.

[Laughter.]

I would have to say, though, that I do want to set out some cautions. When you are dealing with college students, unless they are

extraordinary students and have arrived in college before their

class has arrived, they can be drafted. They can start a business.

They can get married. I think in a free society you always have the

question about how far should paternalism—I guess in the South,

you would want to say maternalism—go.

And we have had debates in the past. I know it is not the subject

today. But since it brushes up against it, we have had questions

in the past and voted in the past on issues related to college students being able to get credit cards. I have never seen credible,

solid, empirical evidence, and I would like to see it, on whether college students are better credit risks than the population as a

whole. Let me say, I would not be shocked if they were.

If I were in the banking business, I would send a credit card to

every engineering student at every major university in America.

And I would make the point, you are going to make a lot of money.

8

You are going to be a reliable citizen. You may have questionable

credit today, but you are not going to have it for long. I want you

to remember my bank when you are rich, and I want you to put

your money in it.

I would send a credit card to everybody that goes to Notre Dame

University and everybody that goes to Texas A&M, because you are

going to make money by doing that. Now, I know there is a paternalism thing that, well, maybe there is some person there who is

not up to it. I think economic literacy and financial literacy are

critically important and I am very much for promoting them. And

I want to be marked down as being on the side of literacy of all

kinds. But I do think that we have to be careful in a free society

about how far we are going to go in restricting people’s rights.

I do not think this targeting of college students is somehow irresponsible. I have not seen the convincing data. Maybe it is out

there. Maybe somebody has it today. I would be glad to look at it.

But I would just be willing to say, even if it were my money, I

would be willing to bet, if you gave a credit card to every student

at Notre Dame and you tracked the profitability of that decision for

30 years, you would make money by doing it.

I am surprised they do not do more of it. Maybe they do. Maybe

they just did not send them to my children. And that may have

been wise.

[Laughter.]

But in any case, having said all that, I think whenever we are

talking about literacy, especially financial literacy and the age we

are in where people are making sophisticated financial decisions, I

think it is always a good thing and I am always for it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much, Senator Gramm.

Senator Bayh.

COMMENTS OF SENATOR THOMAS R. CARPER

Senator CARPER. Mr. Chairman, could I just have 30 seconds? I

asked Senator Bayh if I could just have 30 seconds to make a quick

comment. I need to slip out a minute and then I am coming back.

May I speak out of order?

Chairman SARBANES. Sure.

Senator CARPER. Thank you very much.

Chairman SARBANES. I would rather Senator Bayh acquiesce.

Senator CARPER. I think he has.

Senator BAYH. I would be pleased to acquiesce.

Chairman SARBANES. He more than acquiesces.

[Laughter.]

Senator CARPER. I just want to welcome three people from some

of my old alma maters.

Congresswoman Slaughter, it is great to see you again, Louise.

Welcome.

Representative SLAUGHTER. It is good to see you.

Senator CARPER. Thanks for being here today.

Ms. Hart, ‘‘O-H.’’

Ms. HART. ‘‘I-O.’’

Senator GRAMM. I meant to mention all those colleges. I did not

know you all were from colleges. Okay.

9

[Laughter.]

Senator CARPER. It is great to have you here. Go Bucks.

Mr. Miller, Treasurer from Kentucky, where my mom and sister

live, we are happy that you are here. I am an old treasurer myself.

And Jack Markell, our State Treasurer today, is one of your colleagues and is very much a great leader on financial literacy for

people young and old. We are grateful that you are all here and

I look forward to coming back and hearing part of your testimonies.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Bayh.

Chairman SARBANES. Senator Bayh.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR EVAN BAYH

Senator BAYH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to echo

the comments of other Members of the Committee for your holding

this hearing today. It is a very important topic. And to Senators

Dodd and Johnson and others who have worked on this, I compliment you for the important work you have done. You really have

set the table here for making some important progress in this area.

I think Senator Gramm has raised really one of the critical

issues that has to be addressed here—at what age and under what

circumstances are American citizens qualified and able to make important decisions for themselves? Or to phrase the question a little

bit differently—and by the way, Phil, I am pleased that you singled

out Notre Dame as an area of responsibility since it is located, as

you know, in South Bend, Indiana. You could choose the other institutions in our State as well.

To look at it a little bit differently, or to phrase it just a little

bit differently, what are the necessary antecedents for a fairly and

freely functioning marketplace? What do people need to know to be

informed consumers? I think Chairman Sarbanes in his opening

comment put his finger on part of the answer.

As Senator Gramm mentioned, you can enlist in the military, you

can vote, you can choose to smoke in many jurisdictions, drink alcohol, drive an automobile, do other things, enter into certain kinds

of debts, get married. But the data also indicates that 82 percent

of seniors in high school do not have sufficient information to qualify under at least some definitions for being financially literate.

So it is entirely possible, I would say to Senator Dodd, that we

do have a market failure here because the information just has not

been made available because we haven’t emphasized it in our academic institutions—primary, secondary education—to give particularly younger college students an adequate base of information for

making these decisions on their own.

The question I think we have is do we have a market failure

here that needs to be filled in with more adequate information? I

think the answer to that question is, yes, we do. And I salute you

for focusing on this challenge.

I would also just like to say a word about Treasurer Miller. He

comes from our neighboring State of Kentucky. He has labored in

these vineyards for a long time. He is going to be discussing for us,

Mr. Chairman, some of his ideas about the Commission on Personal Savings and Investment that he has promoted in Kentucky,

and has really done a good job in that Commonwealth of trying to

10

ensure that young people do have the kind of information they

need to make these decisions.

Treasurer Miller, it is good to see you. I apologize for needing to

slip out, but I am aware of your good work and I compliment you

for that, just as I do Senator Dodd and the other Members of the

Committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you, Senator Bayh.

Senator Corzine.

COMMENTS OF SENATOR JON S. CORZINE

Senator CORZINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you noted, financial literacy for the unbanked, for the immigrant community,

and college students, is something that you have focused on. I compliment you on this and raising up this issue.

I think the point that has been mentioned about the 82 percent

failure rate on a simple test is really the foundation point for the

discussion that we will have today.

And for a father who is sending off a young man for his freshman

year in college, actually just yesterday, this is even a more frightening prospect to attend to. We want to make sure that he understands what 18 percent compound interest is.

I think it is a question that should be asked of those responsible

for approviding credit, that the ability to pay is a question that

should be addressed before credit is extended. At least that is what

I learned in my previous banking world career.

And so, I think there are questions here of responsibility on both

sides that need to be addressed, and they all underlie the fact that

we need to improve our financial literacy and economic literacy, in

this country.

I think the kind of legislation that Senator Dodd has proposed,

which brings some checks and balances to make sure that that exists, is a very worthwhile idea. And I am hopeful that we will hear

perspectives on that from people that are laboring in the vineyards.

I appreciate very much your holding this hearing on this subject

and the actions that we might be able to draw from it.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you, Senator Corzine.

Senator Reed.

COMMENTS OF SENATOR JACK REED

Senator REED. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to commend Senator Dodd also for his leadership on this

issue. Certainly, no one can argue the need for financial literacy,

and not just restricted to college students, but across the board.

There are some interesting statistics. Nellie Mae conducted a

study that found that 21 percent of college students have credit

card balances between $3,000 and $7,000. Those are pretty impressive figures. I would shudder if my balance was that high.

They also found that college students are three times more likely

than the general population of credit card holders to be 90 days’

delinquent on their payments, pay late fees, and to pay over the

limit fees, which suggests that there is probably some literacy that

could be improved.

11

Then another survey, interestingly enough, conducted by George

Mason University, found that among students with student loans,

more than two-thirds have used money from their loans to pay

down credit card debt. So borrowing money to pay down credit card

debt is not the strategy I think we would recommend.

I think this is a timely hearing and I commend Senator Dodd for

leading the effort.

Let me also recognize, Louise Slaughter from New York, a dear

friend and colleague in the House. And thank you all, the panelists,

I look forward to your testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much, Senator Reed.

Congresswoman Slaughter, we would be happy to hear from you.

I want to underscore again how pleased we are that you have come

to be with us today. I also want to recognize the leadership role you

have played on the subject of college students and credit cards.

STATEMENT OF LOUISE SLAUGHTER

A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS

FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Representative SLAUGHTER. Mr. Chairman, Senators, thank you

very much. I am delighted to be here this morning, and to see my

colleagues from the House who were truly dear friends.

I always knew, even then, that they were destined for greatness

and a 6-year term.

[Laughter.]

I do not want to let the moment go by without congratulating

this Committee for the extraordinary work you have done on corporate responsibility. The whole country is in your debt for that.

This hearing is necessary, and I am so pleased that you are holding it because the lack of financial education and its consequences

among college students is something that we have been worried out

in our office for some time.

I am pleased to introduce Dr. Robert Manning, who is a Humanities Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in my district. I became aware of Professor Manning’s work in 1999, when

he published a study through the Consumer Federation of America

illustrating higher credit card debt among college students than

previously thought.

The study found that students are snowballing into debt through

the extension of unaffordable credit lines, peer pressure to spend,

and financial naı ̈vete ́ reinforced by low minimum monthly payments and the routine increases given to them in credit. His study

indicated that 70 percent—which is really quite frightening—of undergraduate students possess at least one credit card and, indeed,

credit card solicitations fall upon students like snow. Students are

receiving their first card at younger and younger ages, now into the

high school years. A GAO accounting office study that we requested

found similar statistics, that 64 percent of college students had at

least one card.

Now, like you, I have no problem with them having as many

cards as they want. The difficulty is that we find most students do

not know what credit card debt means. We hear from the parents

who are forced to try to pay off that debt, which brings that lesson

12

home. College students are much more likely than other types of

credit card users to run up debts they cannot pay, because of their

financial inexperience. The consistent misuse of credit cards by college students, particularly combined, as Senator Reed mentioned,

with student loan debt, could lead to substantial debt burden.

According to the GAO report, and I must say that the GAO did

not find much cooperation among universities. It would have been

a much more extensive report had they been able to do that. But

two of the universities of the 12 that they visited had to make

bankruptcy attorneys available to counsel students who were having financial difficulties. According to one of the attorneys, over the

3 years since April 1998, 1,328 students had to use that legal service and that many of them had to declare bankruptcy. Credit card

debt of the students who sought advice from the bankruputcy attorney range from about $2,100 to $39,000, and average approximately $11,200, which is frightening.

I am very much concerned with rising credit card debt among

young people and the serious implications that it has for their future. Too many students are literally spending their futures now.

Let me give you a riddle. Who has been denied a credit card with

a high limit? A, a cat. B, a 3-year-old toddler. C, a freshman college

student with no independent income. Or D, a 25-year-old full-time

worker. The correct answer is D, the full-time worker. Not only did

a cat in my district receive a credit card with a $3,000 limit, but

a local toddler received her very own platinum credit card with a

$5,000 limit.

We all agree that that is very foolish, but we are really concerned

about the ease of credit to people who have no ability to pay the

bill. Many, many parents have contacted me about children who

have had to drop out of school because of credit card debt. It is a

tragedy if a good student with good grades, academically successful, has to drop out of school because of debt on a credit card that

they cannot pay. One constituent’s stepson filed for bankruptcy at

the age of 21 when he had $30,000 in credit card debt. Another

mother called me because of enormous credit card bills her daughter accumulated as a student at the University of Buffalo.

In response, as Senator Dodd mentioned, we have our legislation

which we are looking forward to working with him into fruition as

law. Like his bill, we require parents to co-sign, particularly if they

are going to be held accountable for the credit. We are concerned,

too, that more credit is added to the original cards as the student

continues in college, regardless of their ability to pay.

One of the most important things I think that we need to say is

that young people at least deserve to know that by declaring bankruptcy at the age of 20 or 21 years old, they may very well be jeopardizing their ability to access credit in the future—more difficult

to get mortgages, more difficult to get car loans. I think they have

no idea of that. So, we need to do what we can to, at least, make

sure that they understand the consequences.

I do appreciate very much your holding this hearing today. I

think it is very important. And thank you so much for letting me

be with you this morning.

Chairman SARBANES. Well, thank you very much. We are very

pleased you were able to join us.

13

Representative SLAUGHTER. Thank you.

Chairman SARBANES. We appreciate it. I say to my colleagues, I

know you have a pressing schedule, so we will certainly excuse you.

Representative SLAUGHTER. If I may be excused.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you.

Well, we are very fortunate to have a very able panel here this

morning. I am going to just briefly introduce each, and then we will

turn to the witnesses.

Dr. Robert Manning, who will lead off, is, as we heard, Professor

of Humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His book,

‘‘Credit Card Nation,’’ received the 2001 Robert Ezra Park Award

for Outstanding Contribution to Sociological Practice from the Sociological Practice Association, and his study, ‘‘Credit Cards on

Campus,’’ received the 2000 Morris Rosenberg Award from the District of Columbia Sociology Society. And I might note that Dr. Manning received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

We have also been joined by Ellen Frishberg, who is the Director

of Student Financial Services at Johns Hopkins University, a position she has held for the past 13 years. Ms. Frishberg has served

on a number of national loan advisory boards, including the Sallie

Mae Advisory Council and the American Express Loan Board. As

I understand, today is the first day of classes at Hopkins, so we especially appreciate that Ms. Frishberg could take the time to be

with us.

Our third witness is Ms. Tally Hart, the Director of Student Financial Aid at Ohio State University, one of the largest financial

aid offices in the country. Ms. Hart has done significant research

on student loan defaults and she helped Ohio State University develop courses to teach financial literacy to its students.

Professor Michael Staten is the Distinguished Professor and Director of the Credit Research Center at the McDonough School of

Business at Georgetown University. Professor Staten’s book, ‘‘Consumer Attitudes Toward Credit Insurance,’’ co-authored by John

Barron, won the American Risk and Insurance Association’s Eliza

Wright Award.

And finally, we have the very able Kentucky State Treasurer,

Jonathan Miller. Treasurer Miller established and now serves on

the Kentucky Commission on Personal Savings and Investment.

The Commission held a hearing on student financial literacy at the

University of Louisville in December of last year that actually

touched on many of the issues we will be discussing today. Treasurer Miller was one of 200 distinguished delegates appointed by

President Bush and Congressional leaders to the National Summit

on Retirement Savings.

We are pleased to have all of you here. Dr. Manning, we will

begin with you and then we will move straight across the panel.

Your full statements will be included in the record. And I want

to, at the outset, express our appreciation for the obvious work and

effort that has gone into these statements. If you could summarize

the statements to somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, that

would be very helpful to the Committee. And once we have heard

from all the panelists, we will go to questions from Committee

Members.

Dr. Manning, we will hear from you first.

14

STATEMENT OF ROBERT D. MANNING, Ph.D.

CAROLINE WERNER GANNETT

PROFESSOR OF THE HUMANITIES

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Dr. MANNING. I would like to thank Chairman Paul S. Sarbanes

for providing me this opportunity to share my views with the Committee on this increasingly important topic of consumer debt among

college students, and especially the lack of financial literacy/education programs for America’s financially vulnerable youth. In addition, I applaud the legislative initiatives of Senator Dodd, who

has championed credit card marketing restrictions on college campuses along with critically needed financial education programs,

and also Senator Schumer’s efforts to protect consumers from deceptive marketing and contract disclosure practices of the credit

card industry. I should note that I am particularly pleased to attend today. This is the first hearing on this topic since March 1994,

and that the twin issues of rising consumer debt and the

shockingly low levels of financial literacy among our youth have

grave implications for the continued economic well-being of the Nation, especially as Americans age into debt. And it is for these and

other reasons I commend the Committee for accepting this

daunting task of examining these serious issues.

I am an economic sociologist. I have spent 16 years studying the

impact of U.S. industrial restructuring on the standard of living of

various groups in America. And over the last 11 years, I have been

particularly interested in the role of consumer credit in shaping

consumption decisions of Americans, as well as the role of retail

banking in influencing the transformation of the U.S. financial

services industry. In terms of today’s hearing, I want to discuss my

new report, which I feel is especially germane, which is really the

first case study based on a representative survey of 800 college students in the nearby school here of George Mason University. In addition, I have been very actively involved in the national movement

to improve the financial literacy/education of our youth. And it is

my work with colleges, universities, and student loan organizations

that has really inspired my own efforts on Internet-based education

on this topic.

What I want to emphasize to the Committee today is that this

is truly a unique period. If I could use the term from Wall Street,

the ‘‘Triple Witching Hour.’’ What we have before us today in higher education is a real crisis. That is, unprecedented levels of student loan debt, unprecedented levels of credit card debt, and the

worst job market in over a decade. Indeed, as long as America’s

economic expansion has continued unabated, college students were

lulled into a false sense of financial security by university administrators and credit card finance companies. Indeed, keep in mind

that this is a generation that grew up with TV’s Friends, the sitcom, whose mid-town New York City lifestyle belies their modest

professional incomes. This is a generation that is unprepared for

the bursting of our Nation’s economic bubble.

I do not think there is any dispute that over the last decade we

have seen a sharp increase in borrowing and the cost of credit, particularly with the decline in public funding of higher education.

What is critical, though, is the relationship of student loan debt

15

and the relationship of universities in terms of encouraging and

fostering greater levels of debt, and particularly the lack of balance

of providing an environment that is going to encourage students to

understand the degree and impact that their debt is going to have.

In fact, in 1994, when the last hearing on kiddie cards was actually held, we were looking at a period of time when it was really

rare to find a student with over $5,000 in credit card debt. Today,

I can go to any college across the country and find a student with

anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000 in credit card debt.

What I find most striking since my 1999 ‘‘Credit Cards On Campus’’ study is the fact that the situation is far worse than it was

then. Keep in mind here what I see as a very important and in

some cases duplicitous and insidious relationship between higher

education and the credit card industry. Also keep in mind that of

the 250 largest public universities in the country, they account for

approximately two-thirds of all enrolled students in 4-year universities. And this features universities like the University of Tennessee, which signed a 7-year contract with First USA in 1998 for

at least a guaranteed $161⁄2 million, as well as the University of

Oklahoma that received a $1 million signing bonus. Some of you

might have seen the 60 Minutes program that was based on my

‘‘Credit Cards On Campus’’ study. And what is critical is that when

we requested information on what universities were doing with

these credit card royalties, we could not find a single penny that

was going into any form of debt refinance, debt consolidation program for students in debt, or for any credit card or financial literacy education programs.

Now over the last two decades, the two most noticeable trends

in the marketing of credit cards to college students is that they are

being marketed at a progressively earlier age and what we are seeing is that there is a sharp rise in personal debt associated with

consumer credit cards that tends to be artificially compartmentalized in terms of student loan debt and credit card debt.

What I want to show today is this relationship and why it

shouldn’t surprise us that the risk associated with marketing of

credit cards on campus is so much lower in terms of their being underwritten by publicly subsidized student loans, summer earnings,

efforts of getting parents to pay down debt during extreme crises,

and even using one credit card to pay another. I am not going to

go into detail since I have had in many other places many of the

methodological problems and issues in terms of industry-structured

investigations on this topic. What I do want to emphasize is that

the methodologies clearly define whether there is the identification

of a problem. In other words, if you are doing a survey of a particular school and you are looking at enrolled students, you are not

going to find anybody who has dropped out of school because of student loan debt. That is by definition of that research design.

What I want to emphasize is that what we are seeing today is

about 15 years ago, when the industry released their voluntary policy of having parents co-sign for credit cards, we have seen the

move from marketing affinity credit cards to alumni to college seniors, then to juniors and sophomores to freshmen, to today, we are

seeing the marketing of credit cards to high school seniors.

16

And indeed, we will discuss what the implications of this will be.

But keep in mind that the marketing of credit cards at an earlier

age, unless that life experience means that students are going to

handle them more appropriately, means that the debt burden is

going to show up earlier. It means that retention in college is going

to be affected, and we are going to see increasing drop-out rates because a student who has a debt problem in their sophomore year

may not be able to find a way to financially limp through the last

2 years, whereas, 5 years ago when I started this research, we

were looking at this problem manifesting at the junior and senior

year. This is clearly an issue that is going to have to be addressed

by college administrators.

In terms of my limited time, what is very clear here is that industry-sponsored and financed research does not disagree that we

are marketing credit cards to younger students. The disagreement

is the amount of debt that has been incurred.

Indeed, we will be listening to Dr. Staten’s report from his recent

study. But keep in mind, what we are interested in is the experience of college students, not some amorphous set of accounts, since

we know that the average college student has three credit cards.

What we need to understand is when a student starts college his

freshman year, and we want that person to graduate, what is that

experience and how much credit card debt has been accumulated.

So, I think the Committee staff has done a fantastic job of presenting to you some of the statistics that show quite clearly two

things—over the last 3 years, average and medium credit card debt

has increased significantly. And more importantly, as credit cards

are used at an earlier age, students are accumulating debt at a

much earlier age.

There is no doubt, and Professor Mandel’s study on financial literacy among college seniors that has been alluded to, it is shocking

that the problem with his data shows that high school seniors actually are doing worse on these scores, that attention to this topic is

not by itself a market-driven explanation that is going to resolve

it. Yes, we now admit that there is a problem. But we are not seeing anything that says that we are going to solve it.

What I want to report to you today, then, is the findings of the

study that we conducted here at George Mason University in this

area. And I want you to keep in mind that the lack of financial

education and literacy and parental oversight of students’ purchasing decisions is being fostered by the increased use of the

Internet. But also keep in mind that as budgetary constraints impact high schools, more and more high school students are going

to be taking courses in junior college, in 4-year colleges, and more

and more students are getting credit cards before their parents

ever thought it was possible.

This is critical because where are children and teenagers going

to get financial education? At this point in time, it is only in the

household. And when these students make decisions outside of the

purview of their parents, of course there is going to be some other

issues that come up. In fact, a recent study at Pennsylvania State,

the Erie campus, showed that those students whose parents cosigned on their credit card showed far more responsible spending

17

and consumer behavior patterns than those who got their credit

cards independently.

What I want to do is point you first to Table 1, which shows us

that approximately 77 percent of all students at George Mason

have a credit card. And it should not surprise us that 62 percent

of the freshmen have them; but by the senior year, nearly 90 percent have credit cards.

More importantly, you will notice that as we go from freshmen

to seniors——

Chairman SARBANES. Is this Table 1 of your statement?

Dr. MANNING. Yes, it is.

Senator GRAMM. Okay.

Chairman SARBANES. So if we go to the back of the statement,

we have it right here.

Okay.

Dr. MANNING. What is important here is that we are seeing that

students are getting their credit cards at an earlier age. Eighty-six

percent of the freshman class that have credit cards received them

by age 18. In fact, one of the striking findings of this report is that,

given the intensified efforts to market in high school, last year, we

saw a doubling, from 16 to 30 percent of students who said that

they received and are using their first credit card in high school.

Now keep in mind that the average cost of acquiring a new bank

client is somewhere around $120 to $170. And I do not think it is

going to be unreasonable to assume that some credit card companies may offer kiddie cards with comparable limits for students

under 18 years old.

Now access to credit does not necessarily entail debt problems.

So the real question is what are students doing with their credit

cards and how are they using them? In fact, when we asked students, have they maxed out on their credit cards, shockingly, 60

percent of the freshmen with credit cards said they have maxed out

their credit cards and three-fourths of all other students said that

they have maxed out their credit cards.

Freshmen are more likely than upper classmen to use their student loans to pay down their credit cards. This was shocking to us

because I have not found an industry-sponsored study that actually

explicitly asked the question, ‘‘have you used your student loans to

pay your credit cards?’’ And lo and behold, what we found here is

over 70 percent, over two-thirds of all students are using their student loans to pay for their credit cards.

This is critical and it shows us how important the role of understanding debt in colleges, that it is dynamic. We cannot create

these artificial categories. But, publicly subsidized student loans

are underwriting and reducing the risk of marketing credit cards.

Also notice the high rates of students who are using one credit card

to pay for another credit card.

Chairman SARBANES. Dr. Manning, I am going to ask you to

draw it to a close.

Dr. MANNING. What I want to do then is conclude with some of

the narrative comments that we have, and I think this one statement will really reach closure for my statement at this time.

This is a student who, in terms of responding to what and how

the issue of consumer credit cards affects them and their real-life

18

experience. He says: ‘‘I believe credit card use by students is alarming. How do students who generally do not work pay back credit

card bills? I think that there should be restrictions and legislation

on credit card solicitations on college campus. College administrators, student government council, et cetera, have a responsibility to

protect and educate students on the evils of credit card companies

seeking student sign-ups. Also, I think credit card knowledge and

awareness should be part of the College 101/1st-year orientation

class to help prevent this epidemic sweeping across college campuses. My mom was once a bank loan lender and she noted to me

the sadness of the number of people who are denied loans because

of poor credit ratings established as young college students.’’

That is the voices from campus today.

Thank you.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you.

Ms. Frishberg, we would be happy to hear from you.

STATEMENT OF ELLEN FRISHBERG

DIRECTOR, STUDENT FINANCIAL SERVICES

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Ms. FRISHBERG. Thank you, Chairman Sarbanes, and Members

of the Committee.

It is my honor to be here today to represent the interests of the

students of the Johns Hopkins University to discuss this issue of

credit card usage among college students. We are a decentralized,

multifaceted research university and I have been there for 13 years

helping students to pay for college. I work primarily with undergraduate students. And at that endeavor, we are a very small, selective private college of 4,000. However, we educate 17,000

through our programs that are full and part-time, graduate and

undergraduate. We have eight divisions. We have nine campuses.

We are on three continents. And I think my remarks do affect all

of those learners wherever they may be. But primarily, they affect

the undergraduates.

We are very proud of the outcomes of our students. They succeed

and they graduate in impressive numbers, and more than any

other school in the Nation, they go on to graduate and professional

education. This has made our undergraduates an incredibly attractive market for financial companies who are looking for lifelong

customers, as Dr. Manning mentioned. I have never wanted for a

student loan lender who was willing to lend to my students and

their families. We have a default rate of less than 2 percent. We

have an average graduating debt of $16,200—that is student loan

debt—from all Federal student loans. Our students establish themselves as good payers. So solicitation of these students starts very

early. Many of our freshmen arrived on campus this past weekend

armed with credit cards they received as high school seniors. It appears that the lists that are available to the direct mail marketers

come from a variety of sources, some of them long before the students ever register at our school. But the students arrive with the

credit cards and without an understanding of how they work. They

do not understand what APR is. They do not understand compound

interest. And they do not understand why paying only a small

amount of their bill will get them into trouble later on.

19

Because of the ease of getting credit and the lack of financial

savvy on the part of our otherwise very bright students, and the

unchecked solicitation and giveaways that were going on during

past orientation weeks, back in 1994, the Dean of Students decided

to prohibit credit card vendors from setting up tables on campus.

At about that time, my staff and I became alarmed at the growing

number of students we were hearing about who were dropping out,

who were having credit card problems, and they were leaving

school in order to repair their financial health. They were going

out, getting jobs, paying off their debt, and then coming back. I

have appended to my statement one from an inner-city youth from

Baltimore. He was the child of a homeless woman. He was raised

by his grandmother. He has become a great success. He graduated

from Georgetown Law School and is now working as an attorney.

But by the end of his second year, he had already maxed out four

credit cards. By the spring of his sophomore year, he had eight

credit cards. He was earning $50 a week as a work-study student

and by the time he dropped out of school, he, and at that time, his

girlfriend, had 13 credit cards and $11,000 in debt. He had no income, He had no family resources to fall back on. He had lots of

T-shirts and mugs. He had lots of debt. Luckily, he came to us and

asked for a lot of help to try to restore his financial health, and

he was able to do that and become a success. But he was a victim

of these credit offerings. And you can read his statement attached

to my testimony.

Keeping credit cards out of the hands of students is very difficult.

As Senator Dodd said, we know that credit is not always a bad

thing. It provides for emergencies. It allows students to shop on the

Internet, and that is where they get used books at a discounted

rate and air miles. Our students come from 50 States and they do

need to look for low-cost ways to get here. However, we thought

that if we made sure that our student loan and other financial

services’ vendors were not cross-marketing financial products to the

database of students that they were lending to, it would help to reduce the direct mail and the Internet offers that came because of

the students’ relationship with the university. We did not want

them to be getting these offers because they were students at our

institution.

For a variety of reasons, this being one of them, the university

decided to participate in the William D. Ford Direct Loan program,

which took private lenders out of the student loan equation for our

need-based loans. We have no empirical evidence, but we do believe

that this decision has also reduced, but by no means eliminated,

the number and type of solicitations that our students received for

other financial products, including credit cards. Our concern remains that if you or I get into credit trouble, we have ways out—

home equity loans or mortgage refinancing. But if our students get

into trouble, their options are very limited. Often, it is their unknowing parents who end up dealing with the debt.

However, we are not so naı ̈ve as to believe that we can restrict

or control the behavior of our students, who live their lives on the

Internet—and if you ever searched on the Web, you know that popup credit card offers are a way of life. We do advise our students

on student loan issues. But we do not advise them on credit card

20

issues because they do not come to us. They come to us when they

have student loan needs and we have the opportunity to talk with

them directly. Speaking of the web, colleges and universities are offering new web services to students to ease getting through administrative processes, including allowing tuition to be paid by credit

cards. While Hopkins does not allow this for full-time students, we

can see how it could help to get students into trouble. Because of

the short time that it takes to apply for and receive a credit card,

some students will follow the path of least resistance and opt for

a credit card rather than for a student loan. Compared to the process of applying for a Federal student loan, which can take up to

6 weeks and lots of applications and forms—Credit cards are sometimes the easier way to go.

Our alumni association does offer an affinity card and that is

something that we were very concerned about. The JHU card is not

permitted, we do not permit MBNA to distribute that card to our

current students. We restrict them to only marketing that card to

our graduating seniors and to parents of current students. That is

something that is currently under review, whether or not to allow

that to go to parents of current students. We like that card because

the monies that come back to the university from people who use

our affinity card go directly into the scholarship budget and allow

us to help needy students to pay their bills. But we are also happy

that the marketing is restricted to graduating seniors.

What we as administrators can do is to be aware of the crossmarketing that our vendors are doing, whether it is the ID—and

stored value card vendor on our campus, or our student and alternative loan lenders. We can use our stored value and debit cards

as important learning tools for our students, kind of credit cards

on training wheels. We can encourage students to use the opt-out

service of the major credit bureaus. I am not sure enough people

understand how those work. I have participated in that myself and

while it doesn’t eliminate, it does lessen the numbers of offers you

get. And we can use our roles as educators to teach about compound interest, capitalization, and credit reports, at the same time

we are doing student loan default prevention.

Many students and parents are concerned about this topic and

I am thankful for this hearing. Whenever I mentioned I was coming here, there was universal agreement that a problem exists. My

husband, an elementary school teacher, was a credit card executive

in a former career. He believes that the banks need to take responsibility to offer national education at the high school level, as the

use of cards will not go away. He says it is kind of like sex education, educating young people about birth control after the pregnancy occurs is not very helpful.

The lenders may offer financial literacy programs, but we do not

see them on campus. They are not reaching our students. So, they

could help us with better disclosure. They could help us with more

and better programs. They can make their account statements, the

inserts in the account statements in bigger fonts, not just because

my eyes are going, but because they are hard to read, so young

people do not think that paying the minimum on their bill is sufficient. We need more programs like the Life Skills program offered

by the USA Funds Group of Indiana. And we also need our lenders

21

to start restricting their marketing to those who can afford to pay.

It should be credit-tested. Not the students without the financial

safety net or the parental resources to fall back on.

Thank you.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much.

We will now hear from Ms. Tally Hart, the Director of Financial

Aid at Ohio State University.

Ms. Hart.

STATEMENT OF NATALA K. HART

DIRECTOR, STUDENT FINANCIAL AID

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Ms. HART. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, my name

is Natala Hart and I am honored to be here before you today. I am

the Director of Student Financial Aid at The Ohio State University

and I see in that capacity each week the growing importance of financial skills for today’s students. My fellow witnesses have laid

the case well for this need and demand.

I can report to you that the matter of financial literacy and keeping their children out of credit card trouble is the leading financial

concern that parents express to us as they are bringing their freshmen students to our orientation and leaving them on move-in day.

We think that that is very reflective of a national concern about

the availability of credit and, as has been stated, the increasing opportunity for younger and younger children to obtain credit. I am

the parent of a 13-year-old and I have already begun to coach her

about how to be a good borrower, a good saver in her future because I know, based on her predecessor groups, that she will begin

to receive credit card offerings when she is 16 years old.

In the financial aid office at Ohio State, we delved into the very

small percentage of our students who had defaulted on their student loans. We were interested, as we remain interested, in driving

that number to zero. What we learned in this small number of student loan borrowers who had defaulted was that the vast preponderance, more than 90 percent of them who had defaulted on their

student loans, had credit card debt even higher than the amount

of their student loans. So they were doing both. It was not the student loan by itself that proved problematic in repaying, but a combination of debt that included large amounts of consumer debt.

We hear from our colleagues in the residence hall system that a

small but increasing number of our students are already arriving

as college freshmen in credit card trouble. They define credit card

trouble as these students being so concerned about how they are

going to pay those bills, that the students are not able to focus adequately on their class studies and their primary responsibility of

being students.

As a result, our Division of Student Affairs conducted a study

about credit card practices at Ohio State among our students and

I have submitted to staff a copy of that study.

We also have on our faculty Dr. Lucia Dunn, an economist, who

has developed a ‘‘Debt Condition Index’’ with psychologists on our

campus, part of a ‘‘Debt Stress Index,’’ that describes when debt becomes so significant as to be disruptive to the lives of normal

Americans.

22

Well, what are we doing about all of these issues?

We have taken a number of proactive steps and plan to continue

and expand the things that we are already doing. We offer, through

our Office of First Year Experience classes at Ohio State, a Financial Literacy Week curriculum. We offer a wide array of course

work and last year had more than 1,600 freshmen attend these

courses. Very few of them were required to attend. We find that

about 30 percent of our freshmen class really want to come to these

literacy courses, and that is reflective of what Dr. Dowhower found

in her study of our students in general. A lot of them really want

this type of education.

We have also enacted a campus policy that limits credit card solicitation. We had a slightly different experience than Ms.

Frishberg reported at Johns Hopkins because of our public institutional status. We discovered that by looking into some of the First

Amendment limits, that we were required to have consumer-free

speech, if you will, on our public campus under Ohio law and First

Amendment restrictions according to our legal counsel. What we

could do, however, was to limit the ‘‘time, place, and manner’’ in

which students were solicited.

Our students, along with a key faculty committee, developed

what they thought were appropriate standards for this to occur.

For example, they felt that students solicited during the second

half of the term were much more likely to borrow for holiday plans

or for spring break. At the beginning of the term, available credit

might really help them with more legitimate financial concerns. We

have executed a Request For Proposal (RFP) for services and had

a successful bidder who will adhere to our rules and the way in

which the students are approached. It includes not having trivial

gifts like T-shirts and 2-liter bottles of soda, but good educational

materials to our students. Part of the contract also requires that

they fund a debt counseling position in our student wellness center.

We think that type of arrangement is working really well.

Our course work remains our biggest defense in the end for this

whole problem. Even with our campus policy, we are aware that we

cannot limit the degree to which our students are going to receive

credit card solicitations through the mail. And we think that making educational literacy available is the right solution for this important issue.

We plan to continue our third week of every term Financial Literacy Week on the Ohio State campus and hope our subsequent

class, which begins in just a couple of weeks, will be as interested

in developing these skills.

Finally, I want to commend the work you are doing on this issue.

I know from my daily work in seeing the small number of students

who are in big trouble with their credit card issues, that financial

literacy can be as important as the excellent academic opportunities we offer at Ohio State. We look forward to any opportunities

to assist the Committee in looking into the issue of financial literacy and to continue to report on our very positive findings of

making those available to our students.

Thank you very much.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much.

Dr. Staten.

23

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL E. STATEN

DIRECTOR, CREDIT RESEARCH CENTER

McDONOUGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Dr. STATEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good

morning to you and Members of the Committee. I am an economist

by training, just as a bit of background. I am the Director of the

Credit Research Center at Georgetown University. The center is a

nonpartisan, academic research center devoted to studying the economics of consumer and mortgage credit markets. Over its 28-year

history, CRC has generated over 100 research studies and papers,

most of which examine the impact of public policy on credit markets. I have served as the Center’s Director for the past 12 years.

As students head back to college this fall, a perennial debate will

resume over the problems some of them have in handling their

credit cards. Marketing research surveys indicate that about 57

percent of full-time undergraduates own a general-purpose card in

their own name. By that I mean a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or

American Express, in their own name. From the sad anecdotes

often portrayed in the news media, and actually mentioned today

by some of the other panelists, one could get the impression that

the majority of students are awash in debt, victims of relentless

marketing by big credit card companies and incapable of controlling their own urge to charge. I do not doubt that any of the anecdotal stories are true. These things do happen. But, of course, the

advantage of anecdotes is that they can show us what can happen,

the disadvantage is that they don’t show us how often they happen.

Along with my co-author, Professor John Barron at Purdue University, I recently completed a study for CRC at Georgetown that

offers new evidence on student credit card usage, evidence that

paints quite a different picture. The report provides a number of

benchmark measures of college student card usage based on an

analysis of over 300,000 credit card accounts randomly selected

from the portfolios of 5 of the top 15 general-purpose card issuers

in the United States.

Discussions of college student credit card usage in both the policy

arena and the popular press have been based mostly on anecdotes

and self-reported survey evidence. To our knowledge, the Georgetown study marks the first time account-level information has been

pooled across major issuers to create a statistically reliable database for examining the actual usage and performance of credit

cards marketed to college students. Consequently, the results

should be helpful in grounding subsequent discussion on the facts

rather than anecdotes.

I would like to share with you a few results from our study. More

details along with a number of charts are contained in the text of

my written statement which has been submitted to the Committee

and the full report is available on CRC’s website.

The analysis compares behavior across three types of accounts:

Those opened through college student card marketing programs;

those opened by young adults aged 18 to 24 through normal marketing channels, that is, cards they received that weren’t through

student dedicated marketing programs; and the last group are

those opened by older adults over the age of 25 through normal

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marketing channels. All the accounts that were analyzed in the

study were opened between mid-1998 and early 2000, and were observed over a 12-month period between 2000 and 2001.

And I should note that the analysis follows a study plan that was

originally proposed by the U.S. General Accounting Office during

the fall of 2000 in response to a request from Members of Congress,

but was never executed by GAO due to budget constraints. So it

is basically their plan.

There is much evidence that college students are as responsible

as the rest of us when it comes to their credit card usage behavior.

And in fact, they are more sensible in some respects. Let me give

you a few brief examples and refer you to my submitted testimony

and the full report for more details.

The following can be said about student accounts relative to accounts held by the other two groups in our study. Student accounts

have significantly lower limits and balances. The average balance

of an active student credit card account in a given month is $552,

which is about one-third the size of the average balance for a nonstudent account of other young adults under age 25, and one-fourth

the balance for adults age 25 and over.

Student accountholders do not take all the rope that is given

them. By that I mean utilization rates on student accounts are on

par with the other groups, despite having much lower limits. And

for students who do have higher credit limits, that is, those with

limits over $1,000, the utilization rates are much lower than for

the other two groups. Student cardholders take cash advances

much less frequently. They pay any outstanding balance in full

slightly more frequently.

Delinquency rates on both student accounts and other young

adult accounts are higher than for older adult accounts. In a given

month, 12 percent of active student accounts are past due, versus

about 11 percent for other young adults under age 25, and 8 percent for adults 25 and older. However, among student accounts

that have large balances, for example, those with the balances of

greater than $1,000, delinquency rates are substantially lower than

for similar accounts held by other young adults under age 25.

I presume that this hearing on student financial literacy sought

out information on how credit card products are being used and

hence, invited me, because card usage is perceived as a barometer

of how well literacy translates into practical skills and decisionmaking. So let me offer some conclusions based on my reading of

these results.

If one were to gauge the level of practical financial literacy skills

across these three groups, based on the way that they use their

credit cards, then the data do not indicate a dramatic lack of

sophistication among students regarding the handling of what is a

very powerful payment tool.

I do see some evidence of underappreciation of the potential

harm from sloppy payment habits. There is a very sizable chunk

of student delinquencies that are on balances less than $100, which

suggests to me carelessness in handling their monthly paperwork.

I also see a higher rate of serious delinquencies among students—that is, by my definition, accounts 90 days or more past

due—but in any given month, this amounts to just 3 percent of all

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active student accounts compared to 2.4 percent for other young

adults and 1 percent of other older adults. So, admittedly, the student rate is three times that of other older adults, but it is only

3 percent of all active student accountholders.

More importantly, there is evidence of learning by doing because

the rate of serious delinquencies for students declines as the account matures, so that it is nearly identical to the rate for other

young adults within 18 months of the accounts being opened.

In summary, 88 percent of student accounts pay as agreed in any

given month. And 97 percent handle their accounts without serious

delinquency in any month.

All of these findings are consistent with issuer statements that

they establish student accounts with relatively low credit limits,

with the expectation that the large majority of new young cardholders will learn how to manage a credit card, establish a credit

history, and become longer-term customers.

The undergraduate experience gives young adults an opportunity

to transition from life at home to life on their own. Learning personal financial management is part of that real-world experience.

A general purpose credit card offered with relatively low limits

gives students an introduction to the most powerful and versatile

payment device on the planet. I think of it as the ‘‘training wheels’’

approach to learning to use a credit card. Students learn that their

wants usually exceed their resources and they have to manage that

tension. They learn that a purchase made with plastic today and

forgotten tomorrow can come back to haunt them at the end of the

month with the arrival of the credit card statement. They learn the

credit card company does not forget you made the purchase, nor

will it forget if you do not pay. For those who choose to revolve,

a balance that seems to fall far too slowly month after month

kindles a new urge to find gainful employment during the summer

or after graduation, and perhaps not let the balance rise again.

All of these lessons must be learned eventually. I believe it is

better to learn them with the relatively small exposure permitted

by the lower limits that are typical of cards obtained through college student marketing programs. Postponing the lesson until after

graduation would raise the financial stakes and put young consumers at even greater risk.

It surely cannot be too difficult for our best and brightest youth

to learn about cards and card marketing while they are in college.

I know that artificial limits on card marketing to students have

been proposed at various times around the country. But it seems

to me that this is counter-productive to preparing them for life

after graduation. The wiser course seems to be to facilitate student

access to the information they need to make sound decisions about

using credit and the importance of maintaining a good credit history, and then let them learn by doing.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much.

Before we turn to Jonathan Miller, I want to ask one question,

Dr. Staten, about your methodology. In these comparisons you are

making, how did you factor in, if you did, the number of credit

cards the person may hold?

26

Dr. STATEN. Well, all the results are representative of the way

a given account is used. Now some of these students may have had

more than one account.

Chairman SARBANES. The figures seem to indicate that many of

these students have lots of accounts. Some students then will have

four or five accounts.

Dr. STATEN. That number is relatively small, I would suggest.

The best surveys we have seen suggest the average number of

cards held in their own name is 1.6. That comes from the student

monitor annual marketing surveys.

Chairman SARBANES. Well, Nellie Mae studied this. They said, in

2001, among students with credit cards, the percentage who have

four or more cards, is 47 percent.

Dr. STATEN. Senator, I am glad you raised the Nellie Mae study.

Actually, if you scratch a little closer at that and take a close

look at their sampling methodology, all of their conclusions are

based on a restricted sample of students who did not qualify for

other types of student loans, and who consequently applied to this

special loan program that they had. I would argue that that is not

a representative sample.

Chairman SARBANES. But your methodology does not allow for or

take into account that a student may have multiple cards. Would

that be correct?

Dr. STATEN. It tells us how a given account is used. But if you

find a statistic that you are comfortable with that tells you the

average number of cards students hold, simply multiply that by our

average balance and that will tell you what the average student

card debt is for any given student.

Chairman SARBANES. How about the people you are comparing

them with? How many cards do they hold?

Dr. STATEN. You can get the statistics from Visa and MasterCard.

They range from three to four cards for the adult population.

Chairman SARBANES. But we should factor that in when making

the comparison, shouldn’t we?

Dr. STATEN. I do suggest how you might do that.

Chairman SARBANES. If you compare a student who has four accounts with an adult who has one account in order to get an apples

to apples comparison, you have to, in effect, accumulate the four

accounts to compare with the one account, would you not?

Dr. STATEN. Well, I think we can accomplish where you are headed simply by looking at how an average account for each group is

used. And then if you are interested in trying to determine what

the total balance, what the total card debt of any particular individual is, simply multiply it by the average number of cards that

that group holds. That is a valid way to proceed.

Chairman SARBANES. I take it that is saying yes to my question.

Dr. STATEN. I am not sure if it is saying yes, but I think I just

described the valid way to proceed.

Chairman SARBANES. All right.

Senator DODD. Let me ask this. I am curious on the funding of

these studies. Did the credit card companies fund this study?

Dr. STATEN. The credit card companies provided the data and

provided the grant to support the study, yes.

Chairman SARBANES. Treasurer Miller.

27

STATEMENT OF JONATHAN MILLER

TREASURER, THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity to testify today, and I am particularly grateful that you are

shining the spotlight on the important issue of financial literacy

among college students.

The first few weeks of college have always presaged many rites

of passage—choosing a major, attending your first football game,

rushing for a fraternity or sorority. But a new rite of passage has

emerged recently for college freshmen on campuses across the

country. Applying for your first credit card.

As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, my Commission on Personal

Savings and Investment studied this issue very closely and found

many of the things Dr. Manning and the other witnesses stated

today and they are included in my formal remarks submitted for

the record.

Let me instead address how Kentucky has reacted to this growing problem of credit cards and debt on college campuses. And let

me also echo Senator Carper that there is a lot of good work going

on around this country, particularly from his Treasurer, Jack

Markell, who has some outstanding programs in financial literacy.

My Commission took a hard look at this problem and we realized

that we could not fix all of the problems created by financial illiteracy in the State in one fell swoop, we decided instead to gather

our resources and focus our efforts on one community—

Owensboro—a small city within a county of 90,000 residents.

In a few weeks, we will be launching Owensboro Saves—a project

which unites the entire community’s leadership from elected officials to school superintendents, from college presidents to constituency group activities, from labor leaders to Chamber officials and

key employers. This public-private partnership will sponsor programming over the next year to promote better financial literacy

among all residents of the region, of all ages and incomes. We will

have seminars on various issues that concern Americans today.

However, we also more significantly hope to initiate permanent

educational initiatives to improve the region’s financial literacy.

Working with the nationally recognized Daviess County School Superintendent, Stuart Silberman, we will work to ensure that every

elementary, middle, and high school in the county develops sound,

mandatory financial literacy courses for its students, to be in place

by the 2003 school year. We would like this financial literacy education to be systematic and widespread. And to do so, we will build

on existing resources and seek private funding and support from

community businesses to refine curricula, publish educational materials, and train teachers on financial literacy instruction.

At the same time, we are working with officials from the four

institutions of higher education in Owensboro to develop strong financial literacy curricula for college freshmen. It is my goal that

every incoming student will be required to take a mandatory financial literacy course upon matriculation. In the meantime, we will

develop with school administrators a code of conduct for credit card

solicitation to include this mandatory education as a prerequisite

for owning a credit card. We hope that this will not only work for

28

Owensboro, but also we would like to build a model we can use in

communities across the State and perhaps across the country.

Our Commission believes that legislation was also necessary to

combat the growing problem of credit card abuse on college campuses. In the last legislative session, Representative Susan

Westrom introduced a bill that would have required Kentucky colleges and universities to develop codes of conduct for credit card solicitations on college campuses, prohibiting practices such as free

gifts. It also instructed these schools of higher education to require

mandatory debt education and counseling sessions for incoming

students. There would be no ban on credit cards or even on marketing. We recognize that such solutions would be ineffective since

anyone can be reached through the mail or off-campus, where there

would be no ability to monitor. Rather, the universities, who supported this measure, would be charged with ensuring the best interests of their students.

Now our legislation passed through the State house unanimously

and sailed through a Senate committee without opposition. But,

mysteriously, the Senate leadership did not allow a vote on the

Senate floor. This failure has become all too common across the

country. A GAO survey revealed that in the past few years, most

credit card reform legislation in State legislatures has died the

same way—buried in a committee, without an opportunity for legislators to cast an up or down vote.

I am very hopeful that as the public becomes more aware of this

problem, pressure will be too strong for legislators in Kentucky and

across the country to abandon this needed legislation.

But I believe more legislative action is needed on the Federal

level. Credit card companies are national, sometimes multinational

conglomerates, and for any regulation to be effective, it needs to

come from the U.S. Congress. These corporations have few ties to

the universities’ communities that they target. As a result, they are

often unresponsive to local concerns.

That is why, Senator Dodd, I particularly applaud the work that

you are doing. And as you devise your legislation, and hopefully,

it will pass at some point, in some form, I believe that you should

impose a real code of conduct covering the actions of credit card

companies on all the Nation’s campuses, prohibiting incentives

such as gifts, and banning the more aggressive sales practices such

as the recruitment of student groups that use peer pressure to complete applications. Credit card companies should be forced to determine before approving a card whether the student can even afford

to pay off a balance. Teaser rates, low introductory rates that balloon into much higher rates after only a few months, should be restricted in marketing to college students.

Further, company disclosures should not be limited to the fine

print of credit card agreements and solicitations, where fees and

penalties are often hidden or obscured.

Still, we will only be able to fully combat this problem with a

much more comprehensive effort of promoting financial literacy.

Mr. Chairman, I urge the Members of this Committee and I urge

the Congress as a whole to make financial literacy a high priority

for American education. As you consider education bills, please consider making financial concepts a requirement of standards and

29

making training of teachers on financial issues a part of your funding initiatives.

While such Federal measures will be valuable, a Washington

mandate will not solve the Nation’s financial literacy problem. Ultimately, the solution will come in communities like Owensboro,

Kentucky, or, Mr. Chairman, Gaithersburg, Maryland, where community leaders must join in a public-private partnership to better

educate their citizens.

But it will require a concerted effort from those in the industry

who profit from the accumulation of personal debt. In the process

of my Commission’s work, I have met with several representatives

of the credit card industry. They have shared with me their desire

to protect children from the unfair and aggressive practices of the

so-called ‘‘bad actor’’ credit card companies who they say are a

small minority of their industry. That is why I challenge the credit

card companies to join us in our national effort to protect college

students from credit card debt and promote financial literacy. Today’s college students rarely review educational brochures and

websites sponsored by the credit card companies, no matter how

well-meaning or comprehensive they are.

Today, I challenge the credit card industry to put its money

where its mouth is. I ask the companies to make a substantial

monetary commitment to the development of mandatory financial

curricula for our Nation’s schools and colleges and to train teachers

to provide effective instructions on these issues. We do not need to

recreate the wheel. We simply should build on existing resources

provided by the outstanding organizations that have been working

on these issues. Funding can help us produce and publish materials that young people will read, understand, and apply to their

financial behavior.

Ultimately, credit card debt is an issue of personal responsibility.

But it is unfair to hold college students accountable for behavior

when they are subjected to high pressure marketing tactics and do

not have the financial literacy to make proper economic decisions.

Once given proper education on credit card use and misuse, individuals will then be accountable for their own financial behavior.

And by empowering our citizens with the skills to manage their

finances effectively, we can help reduce our national reliance on social welfare programs and personal bankruptcy.

And maybe, a decade or so from now, there will be some new

rites of passage for our Nation’s youth. A rite of passage for every

third grader to learn about the magic of compound interest and the

importance of savings. A rite of passage for every eighth grader to

study the stock market and American financial institutions, a rite

of passage for every high school senior to take a course on family

budgeting and income management. And finally, in some future

September, before the football games, before the fraternity rituals,

a rite of passage for every college freshman to be given solid instruction on credit and debt management to prepare them, as they

leave their parents’ nest, to build their own nest eggs.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman SARBANES. Thank you very much. I am quite impressed, actually, with the efforts that you have undertaken in

30

Kentucky in this regard and I strongly want to commend you for

what you are trying to accomplish.

I regret that that legislation you were moving through the legislature stalled. But it also happens around here on occasion.

[Laughter.]

We just have to come back at it. I will yield to Senator Dodd.

Again, let me underscore the leadership role that he has played on

this issue, and the balance that is reflected in his legislative proposals, which seem to me to be very sensible and very pragmatic,

as he said at the outset. He is not seeking to, in effect, eliminate

the availability of the credit cards, but rather he is trying to put

some safeguards around them, which will help us to avoid some of

the more serious problems that result.

I must say, it would seem to me that responsible actors in the

field should pick up on this and perceive it as an opportunity to

address an issue in a sensible and a responsible way which allows

legitimate economic activity to continue, but provides some safeguards against these abuses, which then lead to some of the very

serious problems which Ms. Hart and Ms. Frishberg talked about

earlier in their testimony.

Senator Dodd.

Senator DODD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me

thank all of our witnesses for your preparation and your work.

I regret that my friend from Texas has left, Senator Gramm, who

made some comments at the outset, where he talked about the

ability of people who drive automobiles and enter military service,

to be able to smoke or drink or enter college.

In the case of automobiles, obviously, most States today require

some driver training program. I do not know of a single State that

allows you just to go and operate a car without doing that. Certainly military service requires training. Certainly college requires

exams and tests before you can get in.

And we all know, at least there is some way to restrain the use

of smoking and drinking. We permit it at a certain age, but I think

there is not an adult that I know of that would not do everything

in their power to convince a young person not to begin those bad

habits and the tremendous costs associated with it.

So to suggest somehow that people can do these other things, the

implication being that there are not certain hurdles that we place

in front of them before they are allowed to operate an automobile

or enter into the military service of the country, makes the case,

in a sense, of what we are talking about here when it comes to

credit and the incredible life-long stigmas that can be associated

with bankruptcy and with accumulation of debt at a very early age.

I am very grateful again for the evidence. I know that some of

it is anecdotal, but I think anecdotal evidence helps make the case.

I do not know of a single one of you that offered that as the empirical data to support conclusions that something needed to be

done, but rather, evidence of what happens when individuals do get

themselves into some trouble.

Dr. Staten, I raised the issue about who paid for your study only

because I wished you had identified that in your testimony. You

talked about your study, but I think it is important that when we

31

do those things, that we identify that fact here. So, I was going

through, hoping that it might be identified here in the data.

I want to give Dr. Manning an opportunity to rebut, if he can,

some of the allegations made by Dr. Staten, or the suggestions

made by Dr. Staten, when it comes to the relevant sense of burden

between those younger individuals as opposed to those who are

over the age of 25.

How do you respond to the suggestions made by Dr. Staten, regardless of who paid for the study. He challenges your study very

directly.

Dr. MANNING. I think what is very critical here is we have to

look at real students in real households.

Looking at accounts, which, at a cross-sectional analysis, we certainly have to link those accounts, we would have to say, we know

that students open an account and they think that it miraculously

disappears when they stop using it. There is so much misinformation on this topic.

I think it is also very important to understand that a student

who is 20 that has a substantially high credit card debt and suddenly drops out of school or graduates, that that high credit card

debt suddenly doesn’t disappears as they become an adult. So there

is a lot of statistical apparitions that can be manipulated when we

present high or low empirical data on overall debt levels.

The other critical issue is I do not know if some of these credit

card accounts have been paid off with their student loans. I have

presented to you here a statistically representative sample that

shows two-thirds of all of these students at a typical mid-size public university has paid their credit cards with their student loans.

To simply present to me an artifact of the point in time of a balance without looking at the relationship of how different forms of

lending and borrowing are recycling through an individual’s ultimate debt obligation upon graduation, it seems to me that all of

us here concerned with graduation levels are going to be concerned

with the accumulation of debt and how credit cards play a part of

that accumulation.

Simply dividing credit card debt accounts independent of student

loan accounts, independent from debt consolidation loans at the

university credit union, independent of other sources of borrowing,

really does not convince me that we can come to the types of conclusions that Dr. Staten presents to us.

Senator DODD. I will state again for those who may have missed

it, I think credit cards have been a tremendously valuable asset for

consumers in this country, and they have been very helpful to

younger people. And under good management, obviously, they can

provide tremendous opportunities. As the Chairman very graciously has pointed out, the legislation we have offered in no way

would restrict those opportunities. It merely sets some conditionality here: First, that you have to demonstrat an ability to pay. I

remember when I received my first credit cards, I had to prove that

I could actually pay the debts. I know that is an archaic idea, but

that was the requirement.

Chairman SARBANES. Imagine that.

[Laughter.]

32

Senator DODD. It wasn’t just to fill out the forms. I had to show

that I could actually pay the debt.

Second, have someone co-sign it with you, your parent, or someone else, which is not a typical hurdle. Or just to complete some

credit counseling.

So, again, I emphasize the point. I happen to be a fan of credit

cards. I think they are terrific, well managed, in responsible hands

with knowledgeable people, can do wonderful things and open up

wonderful opportunities.

In my conversations with the leaders of these companies who

have come to see me to talk about my legislation, is a competition

downward, in a sense. It is a race to the bottom.

You are disadvantaged, if you decide to demonstrate some responsibility and restrain the kind of activities you are involved in

and your major competitors do not, you can get hurt by it financially because there is obviously loyalties that develop early on.

And so, from a corporate business standpoint, if there is not a

level playing field in how we deal with all of this, you force, in a

sense, business decisions for the companies to do exactly what their

competitors are doing, even though they do not particularly like it,

in order to succeed.

It seems to me the rationale for some national legislation, much

as Mr. Miller has suggested, makes some sense. And I wonder if

the witnesses might comment on the value of having some national

legislation that would apply a standard across the board so then

a responsible company, many of whom said they would like to do

some of these things, from a business standpoint, cannot leave the

competition an open field without them being allowed to play in it.

So I wonder if you might comment on that particular perspective.

Also, I understand about the companies. What really has been

more bothering to me than the companies is the universities. I am

really stunned in a way that university officials have become allies

with some of the most abusive behavior here and become the beneficiaries financially of their own students accumulating the debt,

since they acquire a certain financial benefit very directly, as I understand it, with the amount of credit cards that students assume

and the debt that they accumulate. I am stunned that colleges and

universities would allow themselves to become co-conspirators, if

you will, in this accumulation of debt, which does such disadvantage to their own students.

And I would like you to comment on those two things.

Ms. HART. May I respond, Senator?

Senator DODD. Yes.

Ms. HART. I understand that there are certainly problems among

colleges and universities of the type that you describe. I think that

there are a larger group who fit into Ohio State’s mode of saying,

for example, when we issued an RFP, understanding by State law

that we had to have at least one credit card company that we could

then govern, we specifically avoided having any financial relationship with the level of debt of our students. We saw that as absolutely antithetical to the many efforts we were extending for good

financial education for our students.

Senator DODD. I commend you. But you and I both know that

there are universities——

33

Ms. HART. Exactly. I just think that——

Chairman SARBANES. You would not assert that all colleges and

universities are following best practices in this respect, would you?

Ms. HART. Not at all. I feel that a majority do and that issues

like this hearing itself help promote wider understanding.

I think, honestly, that some of these practices aren’t even well

enough known within the institution. And especially, we, like any

other entity, respond very directly to the needs of our consumers.

And as I have said, we found in just the last year that this is the

leading financial issue that parents present to us. We are in the

business of responding to those educational initiatives and then

aligning our practices.

We really hope that many institutions will join the kind of model

that we are setting forth and we intend to be a best practices institution to try to promote that, where it is not well understood

among any collegial institutions.

Chairman SARBANES. I would question your assertion that a majority of the educational institutions have evolved to the point

where they are following the best practices that you are following

at Ohio State University.

Ms. HART. An important matter to study, perhaps.

Chairman SARBANES. Senator Carper.

Senator CARPER. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

And to our witnesses, I do not understand well the legislation

that Senator Dodd has apparently proposed, but I understand it

has three aspects to it. One of those is the notion that parents

would essentially co-sign with an agreement.

Senator DODD. That is one of the options. They would prove their

own ability to pay or take a credit course to show some financial

education. Either one of those three you can do.

Senator CARPER. I do not know. I had to be out of the hearing

for a bit and you may have each commented on his proposal. I

heard Treasurer Miller commend Senator Dodd for his proposal.

Let me just ask the other witnesses your take on what Senator

Dodd has suggested.

Dr. MANNING. I would like to put a little background on this.

Senator CARPER. And I would ask you not to take much time.

Dr. MANNING. Of course. The best practice of the industry until

the late 1980’s was parental co-signatures. That was a decision

that the industry dropped in the late 1980’s.

The other point is there is a misconception somehow that college

students are singled out. The reality is that the industry has created a two-tiered system in its underwriting. That is, if you are a

college student and you make $5,000, you can get $20,000 in credit

cards. If you are a part-time employed 18-year-old making $4,000,

you may get rejected.

So, I think one of the key points is we need to make it clear,

what is their standard for underwriting and what is their expectation of being repaid?

The biggest problem I find on college campuses——

Senator CARPER. Answer my question, please.

Dr. MANNING. Is that the credit limit is the problem. If we could

get a reasonable limit of a student that would have to be adhered

34

to, say $500 has been proposed, then we wouldn’t hear these problems of students saying, I had no idea I suddenly owed $10,000.

Senator CARPER. Thank you.

Senator DODD. He supports my bill.

[Laughter.]

Senator CARPER. Thank you for that interpretation.

[Laughter.]

Ms. FRISHBERG. While students can get credit on a student loan

without a co-signer, they cannot get credit on a private loan without a co-signer.

We encourage our students if they are going out for private loan

funding, to make sure they work with their families to figure out

the best type of loan to take, whether it is the parent taking the

loan, which is our primary option, or them taking a co-signed loan

with their parent or someone who earns at least $15,000 a year.

We are curious as to why the credit card industry has a different

standard for college students than they do have for anyone else of

their age group. We know it is because they want good customers.

But we certainly believe that there is nothing wrong with requiring

a co-signer, if you have one available.

My fear is that for students who do not have a family member

or a financial security blanket, we do have quite a few of our students who are independent of their families and do not have that

fall-back, that there be another way for them to prove their creditworthiness and receive a credit card. And the bill does that as well.

Senator CARPER. Thank you.

Ms. HART. I think especially the point about having financial literacy a possible requirement, one of the three. In this world of

Internet, delivery of good counseling to students, we use that extensively. We are experienced in that. And so, I think it is very feasible to make that a widely available option so that the students,

like those that Ms. Frishberg mentions, who do not have those

other options readily available, could have a very good, reasonable

counseling mechanism through Internet services.

We use that extensively in our student loan education today and

find, our data suggests that it is very effective, that students really

do go through those mechanisms, and some would suggest, learn

better because they choose when they receive that education.

Now it would precede certain events like the credit card. It does

in student loans. But they are choosing to delve into that at 10 at

night, which seems to be our most popular time, is often better

learning than saying you are going to do it at Wednesday on 10

p.m. So, I think the mechanisms make it very feasible to deliver

that education.

Senator CARPER. What is 10 p.m. is the most popular time for?

Ms. HART. For Internet usage.

Senator CARPER. Thank you.

Ms. HART. Where our charts go off between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Rather than having to come to a given session in the usual

dedagogical style, our students, for functions like this, really prefer

an Internet service. And our research suggests that they learn very

well in those mechanisms, basic lessons like financial literacy, that

they are well delivered in that way.

35

Senator CARPER. I remember as a freshman at Ohio State, and

this really dates me, that 10 p.m. was when you had to have the

girls back in the girls’ dorms.

[Laughter.]

So 10 p.m. had a different connotation.

Senator DODD. There were no girls in the dorms anywhere when

I was there.

[Laughter.]

Chairman SARBANES. Things have changed.

[Laughter.]

Senator CARPER. They changed by my senior year, in 4 years, I

will tell you.

[Laughter.]

Mr. Staten, your take on what Senator Dodd has proposed?

Dr. STATEN. One of the proposals I find intriguing. The other two

I am somewhat skeptical about, the two being requiring the cosigner, and documenting income. And the only reason I say that is

because we know when those are required of other accountholders,

they do not necessarily prevent that accountholder from getting

into trouble with the card.

In fact, what the co-signer does is provide a safety net, so the

credit card company knows it is going to get paid by somebody. But

there is no necessary linkage between having a co-signer and that

co-signer knowing how the person is actually using the card. I

would argue the same thing with the income requirement. Incomes

come and go, and we have seen that required in other types of

loans, and people still get into default trouble with those loans.

Senator DODD. Why do they require them for other people?

Dr. STATEN. I am sorry.

Senator DODD. Why do they require income information, then, for

someone who is not a student?

Dr. STATEN. I would suggest that with students—I am just speculating now—there are two factors involved. One is, they know this

is a promising young customer who has an income prospect in the

future relative to somebody the same age that is not in college.

Two, they have still have half a foot at home. And so the card companies know that the risk is probably lower because somebody’s

going to cover that bill.

Senator DODD. Well, wouldn’t it be helpful, then, if that person

at home who is going to cover it, might have some say in it?

It is a parent. We are talking parents now.

Dr. STATEN. Yes. But requiring a co-signer won’t guarantee that.

Senator DODD. But the parents might say, wait a minute, before

you go off, we are going to set limits here. We are going to do some

other things before junior signs up for $10,000 worth of credit.

Dr. STATEN. And I do not argue with that. But let me suggest

to you that there is a program that I have seen announced just in

the last few weeks. One of the issuers, I do not know if it is Citi

or somebody else, is starting to market a program where the parents will actually receive copies of the statements as well, which

is something I gather is not typical. And so, you can actually foster

that learning process there and maybe it is within the context of

a co-signer. But that is a product that has already hit the market.

36

The last item, completion of a counseling course, I would just

echo that while I think this is generally a good idea, I suspect that

there are implementation problems with actually getting proof of a

certificate of completion of a course, and that it might a be far better effort devoted to creating innovative ways to make information

available to students. And having a card issuer present on campus,

whether it is through the Internet or whether it is with seminars

or whatever, I think is probably a good thing.

Mr. MILLER. If I can just add to this. The sense of urgency that

I see with today’s economy is that, as Senator Dodd mentioned,

there is a race to the bottom right now with credit card companies

struggling to win this competition, that some of the more ethical

companies would like to avoid, I think that if we had some better

standards. And there is a race for any dollar that these university

presidents can find to pay for important school services with State

budget cutbacks.

That is why that legislation is urgently needed. But, I would expand it. I would ask for Congress to join the efforts of Treasurer

Marquel, myself, and Treasurer Napier in Connecticut, to promote

financial literacy across the country. The credit card problem is a

symptom of a great problem of a financial illiteracy of America.

And we are only going to hit that if we have programs in all the

schools going from colleges all the way down to grade schools.

Senator CARPER. Good.

Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Senator DODD. I have tried this in a lot of different ways. Again,

we run into the same problem.

I want to commend you, Mr. Miller. You have done a great job

in Kentucky. I am a graduate of the law school of the University

of Louisville, so I have a lot of affection for Kentucky and I enjoyed

my years down there very much.

I am very impressed with the work of the University of Louisville. There was a study done there or you had a seminar. There

was some effort there. So, I commend you for that. And maybe that

is the way to approach this. We have the higher education bill up

in the next Congress, the reauthorization comes up. Instead of approaching this from the bankruptcy side, maybe one of the angles

would be to approach it from the higher education side.

There is a lot of Federal dollars that go out to institutions. And

in return for some of those Federal dollars, we will try to see if

some discipline can be exercised on campuses in terms of responsibility. Maybe coming from that angle of it, then that would be a

better way to get the companies to respond to this and the universities to respond.

We should talk to you about that. In fact, I will keep in touch

and have staff talk to you about what you have been doing in Kentucky and how we might do something on the national level.

Mr. MILLER. I would love to help.

Chairman SARBANES. Would the two university people briefly describe the atmosphere that exists on registration day or registration week, with respect to the dispensing of credit cards and the

freebies and all the rest of it, before you brought it under control.

Maybe Dr. Manning should address that because I gather, your

universities have restrained these practices. But maybe you could

37

describe it in its unrestrained form, to the extent you know about

it, and then describe it in its restrained form.

Ms. FRISHBERG. If I could just speak to the item that Senator

Dodd just mentioned about the universities being in some way responsible through the Higher Education Act.

I think that there is another, very important entity that can be

affected through the Higher Education Act, and that is the student

loan lending community themselves. Often, they do not know what

the other side of the house is doing with their databases.

Senator DODD. Good idea.

Ms. FRISHBERG. And again, we take issue because we have been

very responsible actors in banning both the tabling as well as the

marketing of our affinity card to our current students.

I am not sure that it is rampant across campuses that they are

not taking this responsibility. But I do not work on a public university campus, so, I do not know what that is like.

The carnival of what goes on during registration is not just the

credit card vendors, but it really is a carnival atmosphere, purposefully so. It is supposed to be fun. You are moving in and you are

getting to meet people and you are learning things.

There used to be multiple tables set up all over campus, no matter where you walked. People coming out and handing you CD

players and Walkmen and T-shirts and mugs and please sign up.

It was your peers. It was your fellow students.

Chairman SARBANES. Well, they are working on a commission

basis, aren’t they? Don’t they come in and if they can get a certain

number of people to sign an application, then they get some kind

of bonus? Like they get a free vacation trip or maybe they get a

record player set or something. Isn’t that the case?

Ms. FRISHBERG. As I understand, that’s how they make their

money, which is why we have not had them on campus for 6 years.

Chairman SARBANES. Record player is not the right word.

[Laughter.]

I am as bad as Senator Carper.

Senator CARPER. When they close the dorms at 10 p.m., they get

our their record players.

[Laughter.]

Ms. HART. I can tell you that from our survey of our students

about credit card practices, that more than a third of them found

the manner in which they were solicited by credit card companies

very problematic. They also felt that it led to a great distrust of the

quality of information they were given by those companies relative

to things like interest rates.

This was a key factor in our decision to really try to limit especially the manner in which our students were approached for credit

cards. And as I said, we found that permissible and we have done

that by an RFP that really restricts not chasing a student across

the oval to fill out a credit card application because of one’s incentives, but to try to provide a reasonable vehicle for good credit card

use and information about educational services that support that

good use. Students definitely found it very problematic.

Senator DODD. At Johns Hopkins or Ohio State, do you receive

a financial benefit from the credit card companies? What do you receive at Ohio State? What is it?

38

Ms. HART. I am sorry. I do not know, Senator, what the response

was to the RFP. That is an important question and I would be glad

to research that and tell you about it.

I do know that what we have done with the proceeds, which was

a question here, it used to be the case that our student organizations received a benefit from sponsoring a credit card company on

campus. And so, we have used the proceeds from the RFP to support those student activities, which are often related to community

service and good works.

Senator DODD. Unrelated to the amount of debt.

Ms. HART. Not at all. Not at all. It has to do just with numbers

of students. As I said, that was a very important principle that we

avoid any relationship to the level of debt or even the number of

students who ultimately took out a card.

Additionally, as I said, we asked in the RFP and got universal

response, positively, that some of the proceeds are dedicated to

adding to the debt counseling that we do on campus.

There is a position in my office that is fully funded by the university and the credit card proceeds will fund another credit counselor

in the student wellness center because not all students think of the

financial aid office as a source of this information. And we think

by teaming up, we have done a very commendable job of using

those proceeds responsibly.

Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman, if I could just add, too.

We took testimony in our Commission about some of these practices and found that really it was some of the students themselves

that were the greatest violators of what we would think would be

ethical practices.

Students who are hired by the companies, paid a quota based on

how many applications they complete, going into dorm rooms, chasing fellow students around campus and otherwise doing things that

put a lot of unfair peer pressure, saying, ‘‘I really need your help

in funding our parties at the fraternity. So please fill out these applications for us.’’

Of all great ironies, when we held this event at the University

of Louisville, which has an exclusive, multimillion dollar marketing

contract with a particular company, we looked at the bulletin board

right outside of the hall in which we were holding it, and there

were literally dozens of flyers up representing several different

credit card companies who were not supposed to be marketing on

campus, right on the bulletin board right outside our hearing.

So these practices really need to be examined on a level with establishing a code of conduct that these companies need to follow.

Chairman SARBANES. Good. Well, this has been an extremely

helpful panel. We appreciate your testimony and the effort that

went into it very much.

I think we have had an opportunity here to air a number of these

important issues.

The hearing is adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 12:10 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

[Prepared statements and additional material supplied for the

record follow:]

39

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing in such a timely manner as,

across our Nation, students return to college campuses. The subject matter of this

hearing—improving the financial literacy of our Nation’s youth—is an extraordinarily important one.

Many, if not most, incoming freshman are unprepared to handle the ordinary financial obligations that come as a result of entering college. For the first time,

many graduating high school seniors and incoming college freshman are presented

with new opportunities and confronted with difficult decisions that will affect them

for the rest of their lives—particularly access to large amounts of credit, primarily

through the use of credit cards. Most new students lack the financial sophistication

necessary to handle the terms and conditions associated with credit card use.

Making credit available to help finance the pursuit of higher education is something we all recognize as vital. However, the aggressive marketing practices of some

credit card companies and the failure to ensure that college students recognize the

long-term consequences of incurring these debts is a serious and growing problem.

The fact of the matter is that financial institutions view incoming college freshman as fish in a barrel for purposes of credit card solicitations. Financial institutions have becoming more concerned with ‘‘branding’’ than forming responsible

financial relationships with new customers. They are more interested in luring students with offers of low minimum payments, free T-shirts, or other giveaways than

caring about whether their prospective customers can reasonably handle their credit

obligations.

The trends relating to credit card use among college students are alarming. Over

80 percent of undergraduates have at least one credit card. Nearly 50 percent of college students carry four or more credit cards. According to the Department of Education, the average balance carried by these students is more than $3,000. College

students are getting into more and more debt at a faster and faster rate, and they

are increasingly facing the consequences of the debt they incur as a result of the

barrage of credit card solicitations. In the year 2000, 150,000 young Americans

under the age of 25 filed for bankruptcy protection. In fact, the fastest group of

bankruptcy filers are those people who are 25 years of age or younger. A lot of these

young people have been or will be forced to drop out of school to pay their debts.

And while personal responsibility is a critical component of avoiding these problems,

so is corporate responsibility on the part of credit card issuers who lure students

into obtaining multiple credit cards without any regard for their ability to repay a

debt. That kind of corporate irresponsibility must stop. Educators, parents, students, and credit card issuers must closely examine and must address the critical

need of improving the financial literacy of our Nation’s youth to help prevent

against the rising tide of college age persons forced to declare bankruptcy.

Earlier in this Congress, I introduced the Underage Consumer Credit Protection

Act of 2001. It would require that credit card issuers, prior to granting credit to persons under the age of 21, ensure that their new customers have one of the following:

A co-signature of a parent, guardian, or other responsible party; an independent

means of financial support for repaying the debts they incur; or the completion of

a certified credit counseling course. This is modest legislation that would take a significant step toward protecting young people from those who prey on them with

false promises of easy credit.

—————

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR JON S. CORZINE

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this hearing on an enormously

important subject—financial literacy. It is a subject of great interest to me, and I

am grateful for your attention to the many facets of this issue, focusing on the

unbanked, underserved communities, older citizens, and predatory lending.

The issue that we will discuss today—credit card usage by college students—is as

important as they get. And it is a particularly frightening prospect for me as the

father of a soon-to-be college freshman.

By now we have all heard the shocking anecdotes and startling statistics underscoring the lack of financial literacy that is pervasive throughout all age, races, and

socioeconomic segments of our society. Regrettably, our young people are but another glaring example of that void. According to the Americans for Consumer Education and Competition the vast majority of high school students—82 percent of

them—failed a fairly standard personal finance quiz.

It is a relatively safe bet that now an even greater number no less about what

‘‘APR’’, ‘‘simple and compound interest’’, or a ‘‘revolving line of credit’’ means.

40

To be certain, there are numerous benefits derived from placing credit cards in

the hands of responsible college students. They can help defray the financial pressures on students, and parents, who would otherwise have difficulty coming up with

the costs of going to college—money to purchase books, paying skyrocketing tuition

costs, and even that much-needed pizza during a long study session.

But there are pitfalls associated with placing these cards in the hands of those

who lack basic knowledge about finances and credit, or the maturity to handle a

newfound ‘‘source of wealth.’’ According to the GAO, 55 percent of college students

obtain a credit their freshman year. That is an enormously powerful tool in the

hands of a 17- or 18-year-old.

One concern of mine is the intense marketing aimed at college-aged students

going on at colleges and universities all across America by financial institutions and

other credit card issuers.

Today, students find themselves barraged by credit card solicitations via mail, email, and campus visits by credit card representatives who offer everything from

free T-shirts to Frisbees to water bottles to get students to apply for their cards.

As a result, some schools and some States have sought to restrict credit card solicitations on-campus. In doing so they seek to reverse the growing overall trend of

credit card debt facing undergraduate students—where average credit card debt has

increased by almost 25 percent over the past 5 years.

Left unchecked, this growing debt threatens to severely undermine the home buying, renting, and employment futures of an entire generation. That is why it is so

important that we carefully examine this issue.

I thank you Mr. Chairman for seeking to do so today, and thank the witnesses

for providing us with their testimony. I would be remiss if I did not commend Senator Dodd for his legislative efforts in seeking to protect students, and their parents,

from the accumulation of large credit card debt as well.

—————

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR DANIEL K. AKAKA

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your conducting this hearing today and

all of your efforts to have financial literacy be such an important focus of the Banking Committee.

Many college students are not adequately prepared to make informed financial decisions in situations that they will face during and after college. Students often have

to borrow heavily to help finance their education and have limited means provided

by part-time jobs. While experiencing these financial difficulties, they are also provided with countless opportunities to easily obtain credit cards. Thus, credit card

debt can quickly add up for the students who do not know how to responsibly use

credit.

This lack of knowledge often leads to a large debt burden for students that further

complicate their future financial situations. Many students may not realize the importance of keeping their own credit clean so as to not preclude future financial opportunities. For recent graduates, debt burdens and poor credit histories can make

it even more difficult as they start out on their own and attempt to buy a car, rent

an apartment, or purchase their first home.

College students who make uninformed financial decisions are also likely to continue to make the same mistakes as they get older. They may not fully understand

the power of, for example, compound interest and may fail to save and invest sufficiently for retirement.

Today, this Committee must examine the actions necessary to help ensure that

college students are able make informed financial decisions during and after college.

Financial literacy among all Americans, not just college students, needs improvement. I look forward to working with my colleagues in developing comprehensive approaches to increase financial literacy among citizens.

I thank the witnesses for appearing today and I look forward to your testimony.

Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

—————

PREPARED STATEMENTS OF SENATOR JIM BUNNING

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for holding this hearing, and I would

like to thank all of our witnesses for testifying today. I would especially like to welcome Jonathon Miller, the Kentucky State Treasurer here today.

Financial literacy is a very important topic. I think all Americans should brush

up on this issue. From elementary school, to high school, to college, to young famiVerDate 11-MAY-2000 07:36 Oct 29, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 89958.TXT SBANK4 PsN: SBANK4
41

lies, to college parents, to retirees, many Americans are making important financial

decisions without the tools that might allow them to make the best decision. We

must make information and education available to those making financial decisions.

Everyone knows how easy it is for college kids to get credit cards. They have Tshirt giveaways, and bag giveaways. Students are inundated with junkmail. They

get solicitations in the bags they carry their new books home in. It is much easier

to get credit cards than to learn about how credit cards work and what responsibilities come with them.

However, restricting credit is not necessarily the answer. Many students use credit cards to charge their books and tuition. They get airmiles that may get them a

free ticket home for Christmas. They get cash back. And some, especially those who

work, would have a much more difficult time being able to pay for school without

credit.

I think most 18-year-olds understand credit cards are not free money. They do realize there are some responsibilities that go along with the card and most know

what an interest rate is.

I think we can do a lot to help financial literacy and I do think some companies

take advantage of naive kids. I just want to make sure we do not do anything that

would deny credit to those who need and understand it.

Once again, I thank our witnesses for testifying today and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

————————

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW

Proper Financial Training Can Curb Rising Credit Card Debt

Among College Students

Stronger consumer protections are needed to prevent college students from getting

trapped by credit card debts that their limited income and work schedule prevents

them from escaping, Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Member of the Senate’s Banking,

Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said today.

Stabenow’s comments came as the Committee prepared to take up the issue of

credit cards and students, an issue made more critical by recent studies revealing

that 80 percent of all college students carry credit cards and that their average debt

was more than $2,300. More than 25 percent of those students had debts exceeding

$3,000.

‘‘How can a typical student—who is working part-time or perhaps not working at

all—ever hope to pay off a $3,000 credit card debt?’’ Stabenow asked. ‘‘In fact, they

probably cannot. Instead, they may well find themselves making minimum payments of mostly interest with little hope of getting out of debt.’’

Stabenow, who has co-sponsored legislation that would set guidelines for issuing

credit cards to students, said the problem needs to be addressed both through legislation and by educating young people in financial matters before they leave high

school.

‘‘Not only is credit card usage among college students increasing, but the general

financial knowledge of that same group is decreasing,’’ Stabenow said. ‘‘We learned

recently how serious this problem is, when a study revealed that 82 percent of high

school students failed a 13-question financial quiz.’’

The quiz addressed such financial basics as interest rates, savings, loans, credit

cards, and calculating net worth.

‘‘Schools can teach a broad variety of social skills, such as dealing with alcohol

abuse and getting along with roommates,’’ Stabenow said. ‘‘I believe they can also

teach enough financial fundamentals that their graduates can avoid stepping out of

commencement services and stepping into debt.’’

Stabenow is co-sponsor of S. 891, the Underage Consumer Credit Protection Act.

—————

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERT D. MANNING, Ph.D.

CAROLINE WERNER GANNETT PROFESSOR OF THE HUMANITIES

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

I would like to thank Chairman Paul S. Sarbanes for providing this opportunity

to share my views with this Committee on the increasingly important topic of

42

1Sandy Baum and Diane Saunders, Life After Debt: Results of the National Student Loan Survey, Nellie Mae, Braintree, MA, 1998.

consumer debt among college students and the lack of financial literacy/education

programs for America’s financially vulnerable youth. In addition, I applaud the legislative initiatives of Senator Christopher Dodd, who has championed credit card

marketing restrictions on college campuses along with critically needed financial

education programs, and Senator Charles E. Schumer’s efforts to protect consumers

from deceptive marketing and contract disclosure practices of the credit card industry. The twin issues of rising consumer debt and shockingly low levels of financial

literacy among our youth have grave implications to the continued economic wellbeing of the Nation—especially as Americans age into debt. For these and many

other reasons, I commend the Committee for accepting the daunting task of examining these serious problems.

As an economic sociologist, I have spent the last 16 years studying the impact of

U.S. industrial restructuring on the standard of living of various groups in American society. Over the last 11 years, I have been particularly interested in the role

of consumer credit in shaping the consumption decisions of Americans, as well as

the role of retail banking in influencing the profound transformation of the U.S.

financial services industry. In regard to the latter, I have studied the rise of the

credit card industry in general and the emergence of financial services conglomerates such as Citigroup during the deregulation of the banking industry beginning

in 1980. In terms of the former, my research includes in-depth interviews and

lengthy survey questionnaires with over 800 respondents in the 1990’s. The results

of this research are summarized in my recent book, Credit Card Nation: America’s

Dangerous Addiction to Consumer Credit (Basic Books, 2001). More recently, I have

collected survey data from a case-study of a mid-sized public university based on

a representative sample of nearly 800 college students in 2002. Some of the key

findings of the study are reported in this testimony. In addition, I have become actively involved in the national movement to improve the financial literacy/education

of our youth. My work with colleges, universities, and student loan organizations

has inspired my own Internet-based financial literacy/education program at

www.credit-cardnation.com as well as my next book which offers practical financial

information for college students and novice credit card users.

Reality Bytes: The Triple Witching Hour Haunts Recent College Graduates

For recent college graduates, the stark realities of coping in the ‘‘real world’’ and

pursuing a career in the new economy are compounded by their unprecedented levels of personal debt. To apply a Wall Street analogy, the ‘‘Triple Witching Hour,’’

record levels of student loan and credit card/consumer debt have coincided—for the

first time—with the worst job market in over a decade. Indeed, as long as America’s

longest economic expansion in history continued unabated, college students were

lulled into a false sense of financial security by university administrators and credit

card/finance companies which led to the amassing of enormous personal debt obligations. A generation that grew up with TV’s Friends, whose mid-town NYC lifestyle

belies their modest professional incomes, was unprepared for the bursting of the

Nation’s economic bubble in spring 2001. Afterall, ‘‘recession’’ was not a part of their

life experience and denial of self-gratification is mass-marketed by Madison Avenue

as ‘‘old school.’’

More significantly, declining real household incomes in the early and mid-1990’s

sharply reduced family financial contributions to college expenses while the longterm decline in public financing of higher education shifted student economic strategies from savings, grants, and part-time employment to reliance on Federally subsidized student loans. As a result, median student loan levels have skyrocketed over

the last 25 years—from about $2,000 in 1977 to nearly $7,000 in 1990 and doubled

again today. In 1996, the College Board reported the average public university student graduated with $11,950 of loans in 1996 (a 70 percent increase from 1993)

while graduates of private colleges averaged $14,290 (a 43 percent increase from

1993). This trend is mirrored in the recent surveys by Nellie Mae. In 1991, the student loan debts of its clients (survey data comprised of 65 percent undergraduate

and 35 percent graduate students) averaged $8,200 and jumped to $18,800 in 1997

albeit partially due to the rapid increase in graduate (professional) student debt.1

Today, public school graduates can expect nearly $15,000 and private school graduates over $18,000 in student loans. Clearly, the student loan industry and higher

education administrators have encouraged and abetted the record levels of student

loan debts with unrealistic expectations of high paying employment with job and

pension security.

43

2 Robert D. Manning, Credit Cards on Campus: The Social Consequences of Student Debt, Consumer Federation of America, Washington, DC, 1999 and Robert D. Manning, Credit Card

Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit, Basic Books, 2000. 3Lendol Calder, Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit,

Princeton University Press, 1999 and Robert D. Manning, ‘‘Charging for Credit: Convenience

Users and the Ideology of the Moral Divide,’’ Chapter 4 in Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit, Basic Books, 2000. 4For specific terms of the contract, see Robert D. Manning, Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit, Basic Books, 2000, p. 348. 5 Robert D. Manning, Credit Cards on Campus: Current Trends and Informational Deficiencies, Consumer Federation of America, Washington, DC, 1999.

The rising cost of higher education and intensifying pressures for ‘‘competitive

consumption’’ on America’s college campuses contributed to the sharply rising demand for ‘‘plastic’’ money among our youth—without extolling the necessary financial education programs. At the onset of the deregulation of the U.S. financial services industry in the early 1980’s, extending credit to college students was viewed

as a risky strategy. College seniors with ‘‘one foot out of the door’’ were perceived

as relatively low financial risks and typically received credit card offers as they approached their 21st birthday; most offers, however, were for gas and retail rather

than ‘‘universal’’ bank cards. The exceptions were student with full-time jobs or

whose parents were willing to co-sign the revolving loan contract. By the late 1980’s,

banks began to saturate their middle and working class revolving credit card markets (based on prevailing underwriting criteria) and began to aggressively pursue

the college student market by relaxing the industry’s voluntary parental co-signature requirement for students under 21 years old. This was because industry executives realized that students would use their summer earnings and college loans to

pay for their credit card debts. Furthermore, they were even willing to ask their

parents to assist in paying their credit card bills. Even so, when U.S. Congressman

Joe Kennedy convened the ‘‘Kiddie Credit Card Hearing’’ before the Subcommittee

on Consumer Credit and Insurance in March 1994, student credit cards typically

featured introductory limits of $200 to $300 and it was rare to find a student that

amassed over $5,000 in credit card debt in the early 1990’s. In my own research

on this period, high credit card debt levels were more likely accumulated by students immediately after graduation rather than during college matriculation. This

was largely due to the difficult job market of the early 1990’s and greater willingness of banks to extend higher credit limits after leaving school.2

The enormous profitability of consumer credit cards, together with the crossmarketing strategies of financial services conglomerates in the mid- and the late1990’s, have produced competitive pressures to recruit new clients at an increasingly

younger age. The result is that the overall proportion of college students with credit

cards has risen sharply—from about one-half in 1990 to over three-fourths today;

my studies of students at universities in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area

range from 77 to 85 percent. Significantly, this means that college and even high

school students are being socialized to perceive consumer credit as a generational

entitlement rather than an earned privilege. For most American students, credit

card ‘‘membership has its privileges’’ before commencing a full-time job and adhering to a financial budget. This fracturing of what I refer to as the traditional ‘‘cognitive connection’’—where one’s standard of living is defined by one’s household income—is a radical departure from America’s Puritan influenced cultural attitudes

toward consumer credit and debt where satisfactorily abiding by a household budget

(fiscal responsibility) is rewarded with more consumer credit.3 The availability of

greater levels of consumer credit at an earlier age without accompanying financial

education is a financial windfall to the credit card industry and its associated networks of retailers including college and university administrators who reap multimillion dollar exclusive marketing agreements. This is because the largest 250 public universities account for over two-thirds of college students at 4-year institutions.

For instance, the University of Tennessee signed a 7 year contract with First USA

in 1998 which guarantees at least $16.5 million while the University of Oklahoma

received a $1 million signing bonus. It is noteworthy that none of the ‘‘royalties’’

from these lucrative contracts have been used to fund financial literacy/credit card

education or debt consolidation programs.4

Over the last decade, the two most noticeable trends in the marketing of credit

cards to college students is the progressively earlier age of opening the first credit

card account and the resulting rise in personal debt associated with consumer credit

cards. Although it is not my intention to detail the flawed methodology of credit

card industry financed studies, which I have reviewed elsewhere, it is important to

recognize the complex dynamics of student consumer debt.5

44

6General Accounting Office, Consumer Finance: College Students and Credit Cards, Washington, DC, June 2001, pp. 33–34. This methodologically flawed report features a striking reliance on credit card industry financed studies and an explicit reluctance to examine academic

studies on the topic. In addition, the GAO failed to require the credit card industry to supply

important proprietary information that could have revealed new insights into these issues. 7Student Monitor, ‘‘Financial Services,’’ Ridgewood, New Jersey, 2001 and Michael E. Staten

and John M. Barron, College Student Credit Card Usage, Credit Research Center, Georgetown

University, Washington, DC, June 2002. 8The Education Resources Institute and the Institute for Higher Education Policy, Credit Risk

or Credit Worthy? College Students and Credit Cards, Boston, MA, June 1998.

First, an accurate estimate of student consumer debt levels and their associated

social consequences require a research methodology that ‘‘tracks’’ or follows a student class cohort from orientation to graduation. This will capture students who

have dropped out of school due to high debt levels and are not subsequently interviewed since they are no longer included in the matriculating student population

universe. This methodological issue was noted in the highly flawed 2001 General

Accounting Office (GAO) report on this topic.6

Second, average student debt levels must be estimated by each class cohort (freshman through senior) rather than a institutional average that combines low freshman debts with high senior debts and thus underestimates the debt obligations of

college students when they leave school. The real issue is how much debt young

adults have incurred upon graduation NOT an average for the overall student population at a single point in time.

Third, student debt levels must examine the dynamic smorgasbord of all different

types of personal debt. For example, my 1999 study was the first to explore the relationship between student loan and credit card debt. That is, the survey questionnaires of industry financed studies neglect to ask students whether they use college

loans to pay their credit card debts and thus miraculously erase substantial portions

of revolving credit card debt. Unlike the accounting magic of Wall Street, personally

assumed debt of average Americans must be eventually repaid, regardless of the accounting category. As a result, my research suggests that more accurate estimates

of student debt require in-depth interviews throughout the collegiate career of student respondents. Significantly, I am not aware of any credit card industry-sponsored study that is based on in-depth interviews with real-life college students.

Credit Cards on Campus: Hunting in a Baited Field?

Academic and industry-financed studies agree that students are receiving credit

cards at a progressively earlier age. For instance, the Student Monitor, which is

funded by contracts from the banking industry, reports that its survey of 100

schools (1,200 interviews) in 1994 found that 11 percent of its student credit cardholders opened their accounts while in high school and 20 percent after high school

but before attending college. In 1998, these proportions rose to 15 percent and 22

percent, respectively. Overall, the proportion of students that received their first

credit card after their freshman year of college declined from 34 percent in 1994 to

19 percent in 1998. Dr. Michael Staten and Dr. John Barron’s new study of credit

card accounts opened between January 1998 and May 2000 (conducted under the

auspices of the Credit Research Center at Georgetown University with its longstanding financial ties to the banking industry) reports that the median age of students when they opened their credit card accounts was 19.9 years old. Since the

sampling unit is credit card accounts rather than students, it is not possible to identify the age of the first credit card account or the total credit card debt of an individual student with precise accuracy since the average student has at least 3–4

credit cards before completing college.7 Indeed, many students are not aware that

not using their credit card does not necessarily terminate the cardholder agreement.

Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that during this period the median age of opening

a student’s first credit card account was the end of the freshman or beginning of

the sophomore year of college.

Interestingly, the major disagreement between the industry-sponsored and the

student loan/academic studies is the amount of accumulated credit card debt. Although the Student Monitor data and the 1998 The Education Resources Institute

(TERI) survey show a monotonic increase of credit card debt over a student’s collegiate career, both studies report average student credit card debt at less than $700.8

Similarly, the Staten and Barron study report average student credit card debt

at less than $600 although it does not estimate the total, aggregate average credit

card debt per college student. And, of course, none of these studies explicitly investigated whether student loans were used to pay credit card debts during the students’ collegiate career. As a result, these different sampling units of industry-sponVerDate 11-MAY-2000 07:36 Oct 29, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 89958.TXT SBANK4 PsN: SBANK4
45

9 Nellie Mae, Undergraduate Students and Credit Cards: An Analysis of Usage Rates and

Trends, Nellie Mae, Braintree, MA, April 2002. 10Lewis Mandell, Our Vulnerable Youth: The Financial Literacy of American 12th Graders:

A Failure by Any Measure, Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, Washington,

DC 1998, 2000, 2002.

sored studies tend to obscure rather than clarify the true level of consumer debt

among college students.

The time series of surveys of undergraduate student loan clients at 4 year colleges

(18 to 24 years old) conducted by Nellie Mae in 1998, 2000, and 2001 offers an important longitudinal comparison albeit based on a college student universe that includes differences from the overall U.S. student populations. For instance, these students may be less debt adverse and come from lower economic backgrounds. Hence,

critics of these studies contend that the Nellie Mae data overstate the amount of

credit card debt among college students. Nevertheless, the trends are striking. The

proportion of students with credit cards rose from 67 percent in 1998 to 83 percent

in 2001 while the proportion of students with 4 or more credit cards jumped from

27 to 47 percent. Median credit card debt per student rose from $1,222 in 1998 to

$1,770 in 2001 while the proportion of balances from $3,000 to $7,000 rose 61 percent from 14 to 21 percent. Significantly, those with credit card balances exceeding

$7,000 declined from 10 to 6 percent which explains the decline in average credit

card debt per student from $2,748 in 2000 to $2,327 in 2001. Unfortunately, we do

not know if these most heavily indebted students reduced their credit card balances

through debt consolidation transactions or actually paid it off.

The most striking pattern is the monotonic relationship between credit card debt

and class standing in 2001. Median credit card debt rises from $901 among freshman and $1,564 among sophomores to $1,872 among juniors and $2,185 among seniors. The average credit card debt levels are $1,533, $1,825, $2,705, and $3,262, respectively, which reflects the high debt levels of students at the extreme tail of the

distribution. Similarly, the proportion with balances between $3,000 and $7,000

rises from 8 percent of freshman and 18 percent of sophomores to 24 percent of juniors and 31 percent of seniors. Significantly, Nellie Mae reports the median student

loan debt of seniors ($15,708) together with their median student credit card debt

($2,185) for a total of $17,893; the average combined student debt of $20,402 includes $17,140 of student loans and $3,262 of credit card debt.9 Although credit card

debt comprises an average of 16 percent of median student debt among the college

seniors of the 2001 Nellie Mae survey, this is an underestimate since it does not

distinguish earlier credit card debt that was paid with student loans. These trends

are immortalized in the Now and Zen ‘‘slacker’’ line of T-shirts which features a parody of the popular MasterCard advertising campaign: ‘‘Late night pizzas: $5,200;

Books for classes: $7,000; Tuition & Fees: $120,000; Moving back into the basement:

Priceless.’’

Student Financial [Il]literacy: Passing Or Making a Buck

The increasing social pressure to enjoy a more costly lifestyle in college and increasingly high school—the ‘‘Just Do It’’ competitive consumption of immediate

gratification—means that students are more likely to spend borrowed rather than

earned money outside the budgeting framework of a family allowance and part-time

employment. For many parents, their children’s Internet shaped lifestyles entail the

use of virtual money with its own set of rules and responsibilities. Plastic money

is currency of the ‘‘web’’ and cash is becoming as alien to high school students as

minimum wage employment is to the price of popular music CD’s and movie DVD’s.

More disconcerting, however, is the lack of adequate personal finance or consumer

‘‘life skills’’ curriculum in American high schools. According to Professor Lewis Mandel, SUNY-Buffalo School of Management, less than one in seven high school seniors

in his 2002 survey received any personal finance education.10 And, of course, not

all curriculum is equal or entails measurable results. As a financial educator in

Texas recently confided to me, the educational program for a private, largely white

suburban school was offered every day whereas the same program was offered only

once every other week in the largely minority, public, urban school.

The most striking finding of Professor Mandel’s financial literacy survey, which

has been conducted over the last 5 years, is that the performance of high school seniors continues to decline. In 2002, the average score on his financial literacy test

was only 50 percent, a failing grade by any measure concludes Mandel. Furthermore, only 60 percent agreed that sales taxes ‘‘makes things more expensive’’ and

35 percent stated that they are ‘‘not to sure’’ or ‘‘not at all sure’’ about how to manage their money.’’ At the same time, 28 percent reported using their own or their

46

11Lewis Mandell, Our Vulnerable Youth: The Financial Literacy of American 12th Graders:

A Failure by Any Measure, Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, Washington,

D.C. 1998, 2000, 2002. 12Pinto, Mary Beth, Diane H. Parente, and Todd S. Palmer, ‘‘College Students’ Credit Card

Debt and the Role of Parental Involvement: Implications for Public Policy,’’ Journal for Public

Policy and Marketing, Vol. 20 (1), pp. 105–113. 13Patrica Drentea, ‘‘Age, Debt, and Anxiety,’’ Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 41

(December 2000), pp. 437–450; Patrica Drentea and Paul J. Lavrakas, ‘‘Over the limit: The association among health, race and debt,’’ Social Science & Medicine Vol. 50 (2000), pp. 517–529;

and Robert D. Manning, Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit,

Basic Books, 2000.

parents’ credit card.11 As students feel compelled to spend more than they earn and

credit card companies are eager to offer them high interest credit, it is becoming

even more imperative that financial literacy programs be offered in high school and

college so that America’s youth do not suffer the social consequences of an unfair

financial ‘‘playing field.’’ Currently, the financial learning curve for American students is economically benefiting a few financial services conglomerates at the

expense of unsuspecting families and the future of America’s youth.

Clearly, the lack of financial education/literacy and parental oversight of students’

purchasing decisions (especially over the Internet) encourages the credit card industry to market their products to increasingly younger students in the pursuit of

higher corporate profits. As budgetary constraints send more high school students

to junior colleges for part-time and even full-time classes and high school juniors

and seniors visit colleges in order to make informed matriculation decisions, access

to bank credit cards continues to push the boundaries of informed consent. In fact,

I was recently contacted by an economics teacher at a California high school who

was shocked by the brazen marketing of credit cards and student loans to his students on campus by representatives of Wells Fargo Bank. For this teacher, such

aggressive marketing campaigns (featuring ‘‘free’’ mini soccer balls) means that the

social and personal problems of local college students will become more prevalent

in high school. For the credit card industry, then, the goal is to encourage naı ̈ve students to obtain credit cards at an earlier age and, especially, outside of the purview

of their parents. Indeed, a recent study of credit card financed consumption patterns

at Pennsylvania State University-Erie Campus showed that those students who

used credit cards that are co-signed or whose bills are paid by their parents spend

considerably less than their peers whose parents are excluded from the oversight

of their credit card purchases.12

George Mason University: A Case-Study of a Mid-Sized Public University

The picture of student credit card debt on American college campuses appears

from the available data to be a Dickenesque ‘‘Tale of Two Cities.’’ On the one hand,

industry-sponsored studies portray college and high school students as largely informed consumers whose purchases tend to conform to a generally manageable level

of personal debt. College is viewed as the stepping stone to a secure financial future

and any accumulated debt will be easily paid-off during the early years of an adult’s

‘‘earning cycle.’’ On the other hand, critics of the credit card industry point out that

credit card debt is vastly underreported and that the social consequences may outweigh the economic costs. This is because students are naı ̈ve about their personal

and especially financial decisions which disproportionately impact minorities, firstgeneration college students, members of low-income households, and the emotionally

fragile. Furthermore, college administrators are receiving millions of dollars in

credit card ‘‘royalties’’ and other ‘‘sweetners’’ from the banking industry which has

clouded their judgement in accurately recognizing the magnitude of the problem and

implementing the necessary educational programs. And, the noneconomic consequences can lead to academic failure, loss of financial aid, deteriorating employment prospects, health problems, personal and familial conflicts, credit problems,

lifestyle difficulties, failed relationships, and even suicide.13

In order to assess the prevalence of student debt and the dynamics of student

credit dependency, I sought to examine these issues through a case-study of a midsized public university: George Mason University. Located in Northern Virginia

(Fairfax County) and part of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, George Mason

University features an enrollment of approximately 25,000 students; about 60 percent are undergraduates and 40 percent graduate and professional students. In the

spring of 2002, a random sample of 8,000 students was selected from the university

registrar’s list of matriculating students. From this sample, 800 randomly selected

student interviews were conducted in April and the results confirm that the sample

closely mirrors the university student population characteristics. From this sample,

the results are presented separately for the undergraduate (N=500) and graduate

47

14 Robert D. Manning, Gregory A. Guagnano, and Ray Kirshak, Credit Cards on Campus: A

Growing Collegiate Crisis or Benign Societal Trend? (September 2002).

students (N=300). This methodologically rigorous sampling design yields a representative sample of credit card usage patterns of George Mason University undergraduate students.14 Not incidentally, it is distinct from industry-sponsored studies

that are comprised of pooled samples of small numbers of students from a large

number of colleges and universities.

For the purposes of this hearing, I will report on only a few variables of public

policy significance. First, Table 1 shows that over three-fourths (77.4 percent) of

George Mason undergraduate students have bank credit cards. As expected, the lowest proportion (62.4 percent) is among freshman and the highest is among seniors

(88.2 percent). Interestingly, the sharpest increase in credit card use is between

sophomores (65.7 percent) and juniors (87.5 percent). Similarly, the proportion of

students with more than two bank credit cards increases substantially from 5 percent among freshmen to 14 percent among sophomores to 21 percent of juniors and

28 percent of seniors. Interestingly, this trend coincides with the greater use of student loans as reported in Table 3, ranging from a low of 33.6 percent of freshmen

to a high of 52.8 percent of seniors.

Table 2 illuminates the results of the recent marketing pressures on high school

students. In 1998, 10 percent of George Mason freshmen indicated that they first

used bank credit cards before the age of 18. Over the next 2 years, the proportion

rose to an average of 16 percent and then double to 30 percent in 2001. Overall,

86 percent of the George Mason freshman class with bank credit cards received

them by the age of 18 years old. Hence, bank credit cards are now available to virtually any college student and soon high school student who is at least 18 years

old—regardless of financial education and/or experience. With the average cost of acquiring a new bank client ranging from $120–$170, it is not unreasonable to assume

that some credit card companies may offer ‘‘kiddie cards’’ with comparable credit

limits for 17-year-old students.

Access to consumer credit cards, however, does not necessarily entail student debt

problems. If students are informed consumers and understand the cost-efficient use

of bank credit cards, then earlier use of credit cards may result in fewer student

debt problems later in school. Table 2 shows the results of whether students have

maxed out their credit card limits at least once while in college. Surprisingly, nearly

60 percent of freshmen reported maxing out a credit card at least once while the

proportion rises to about three-fourths of the remaining undergraduates. Even more

shocking is the reported use of one credit card to pay for another. Almost 60 percent

of George Mason freshmen and nearly two-thirds of the other Mason undergraduates used one credit card to pay for another. Finally, the question that has not been

investigated by industry-sponsored studies is reported in Table 3. It shows that

freshmen are more likely than upperclassmen to use their student loans to pay

down their credit cards: 73 percent of freshmen versus 67 percent of juniors and

seniors. This finding suggests that access to credit cards at an earlier age—without

accompanying financial education—increases the probability of the accumulation of

higher levels of costly consumer debt. The key issue, then, is who bears the costs

of their social consequences?

Credit Cards on Campus:

A Growing Collegiate Crisis or Benign Societal Trend

Like driving a car to work, bank credit cards offer highly convenient and useful

services to informed consumers who understand how to use them most effectively.

Although students can sacrifice their lives for the Nation through military service

at the age of 18, they are not allowed to drive a car without adult supervision until

they demonstrate adequate proficiency skills in an evaluation setting. Some students may be sufficiently mature to drive alone at 16 years old while others may

not handle the responsibility until the age of 25 years or even older. Similarly, a

novice driver should not be encouraged to drive a high performance sports car while

an unemployed student should not be tempted with a high line of credit. As a male

sophomore respondent explains, ‘‘I don’t own a credit card myself. I don’t think that

I want one at this stage of my life. I couldn’t trust myself with a credit card right

now. I have so many wants. It’s hard to separate my wants from my needs.’’ Another student discussed the naı ̈vete ́ of students toward ‘‘plastic’’ money, ‘‘I think it’s

too easy to spend money because you’re not actually seeing the money, you’re just

swiping the card real fast and then you don’t have to think about it anymore. If

you had to pay with cash you would notice the size of your wallet decreasing.’’

While such caution may lead to the rejection of the advantages of bank credit

cards, the more common experience is expressed by a first-year female respondent,

48

[Credit cards are] a good way to establish credit, but an easy way to get

carried away! I would suggest everyone who wishes to establish credit to

get a credit card, but only use it for emergencies! Everything else, use cash

or you will get yourself into a rut because it’s too easy to say, ‘‘Oh, it’s a

credit card so I’ll just pay it later.’’ But you forget about the interest and

finances charges and pretty soon your’re at or beyond your credit limit an

then you’re stuck paying a high amount, plus finance charges each month!

So be wise about getting/using credit cards . . . they can help you, but they

can also hurt you!

The issue of informed/practical financial knowledge and lack of personal maturity

resonates with the respondents of the George Mason survey. As second-year student

confides, ‘‘It is important to build credit so that when you get out of school you have

some good credit, but I think a lot of students end up worse off from having credit

cards and do not use them wisely. I do not have one, but I will get one my senior

year because I feel I will be mature enough to handle it then. I would rather not

risk being in debt.’’ A junior expressed frustration over the lack of marketing restraints on credit card companies, ‘‘It is so easy to get into deep debt using credit

cards unwisely. If you can’t afford to buy something with cash, you should generally

not put it on a credit card. Credit card companies should not offer cards to everyone.

We get at least six offers each week in the mail.’’ These sentiments were echoed

by a fourth-year senior, ‘‘I wish that I never received a credit card. I was stupid

and 18. It didn’t help that credit card companies would call my apartment on campus and ask if I wanted one because I was ‘preapproved.’ All they wanted was a

sucker who would go into debt and owe them 500 percent interest. I think the age

for getting a credit card should be 21. At least then you would have grown up a

little bit more . . . away from your parents.’’

As George Mason students were asked to explain the principal reasons for rising

credit card debt, financial illiteracy in general and the role of universities in particular assumed central roles in the success of ‘‘mafia-like’’ bank conspiracies. According to a recent graduate, ‘‘I think that Americans in general lack sound financial education which leads to many people accruing too much debt. Credit cards can

be a useful spending tool, but should be paid off monthly if possible. I had $20,000

in credit card debt when I got out of college . . .’’ Others specifically vented their

anger at college administrators, ‘‘Universities should not allow credit card companies to solicit their business on-campus. Freshmen who live on-campus are very

likely to get a credit card, spend wildly, and end up with terrible credit later in life.

I saw it happen to many friends.’’ Similarly, a second-year male respondent declared, ‘‘I think credit cards are pushed on college students too much. I have been

offered a card by 8 different companies, at least, since I came to GMU. Credit cards

are nothing but trouble because once you get them, you can’t resist using them, and

the companies know that. College students are easy prey for the credit card companies.’’ As a fourth-year student described her continuing distress, ‘‘They are dangerous and I feel that I was trapped into getting one because every credit card company was after me [during] my freshman year and now I have so many I cannot

pay them off. . . . The crazy thing is I have 4 cards that are maxed and I have

not used them in the last 3 years [yet] I am still paying for them.’’ Finally, a junior

male respondent succinctly declared, ‘‘There should be a rule not allowing credit

card companies to solicit applications from people on campus. They ruined my life.’’

Fear, anger, and despondency can overwhelm students who are trying to complete

their studies especially when they realize that their credit cards are now an impediment rather than a useful aid in their quest to graduate. Whether as one sophomore

describes them as, ‘‘They’re like the Mob. You should know how to deal with them.’’

Or as a graduating senior dispassionately explains, ‘‘I believe that most people do

not know how to manage their money well, however, I feel that I can. I enjoy the

fact that because most Americans are in debt because of their stupidity’’ to a fatalistic loss of freedom, ‘‘I really believe most Americans are moving toward the stigma

associated with the word ‘American’: Born in debt, die in debt.’’

For many students, the loss of personal freedom that has resulted from the unbridled pursuit of competitive consumption on college campuses leaves no other option

but Government regulation and public education. As a female junior concluded,

‘‘Public policy should require full disclosure about interest rates prior to issuing a

credit card. Budget plans should be required prior to issuing a credit card. Financial

planning courses should be part of junior high and high school curriculums—as well

as for college freshmen.’’ Sadly and ironically, most students expressed cynical pessimism that their university administrators would respond to the student debt crisis

by imposing responsible restrictions on credit card companies and offering useful

financial education programs and practical seminars. For most of these students,

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15Sandy Baum and Diane Saunders, Life After Debt: Results of the National Student Loan

Survey, Nellie Mae, Braintree, MA, 1998 and Robert D. Manning, Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit, Basic Books, 2000. 16 Reported in General Accounting Office, Consumer Finance: College Students and Credit

Cards, Washington, DC, June 2001, pp.12–14. See also Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren,

and Jay L. Westbrook, The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt, Yale University Press,

2000.

credit cards were viewed as simply another way of ‘‘ripping off’’ students by an indirect form of revenue enhancement. The solution was articulately summarized by a

third year male respondent, ‘‘I believe credit card use by students is alarming. How

do students, who generally don’t work, pay back credit card bills . . . I think that

there should be restrictions and legislation on credit card solicitations on college

campus—college administrators, student government council, et cetera, have a responsibility to protect and educate students on the evils of credit card companies

seeking student signups. Also, I think that credit card knowledge and awareness

should be part of the College 101/1st year orientation class to help prevent this epidemic sweeping across college campuses. My mom was once a bank loan lender and

she noted to me the sadness of the number of people who were denied loans because

of poor credit ratings established as young college students.’’

Conclusion: Public Policy Responses to Credit Cards on Campus

The unrestrained marketing of bank credit cards on college and high school campuses is not a phenomenon that simply can be reduced to dollars and sense. Rather

the lack of financial literacy and educational programs is consigning increasing

numbers of young Americans to the shackles of high-interest consumer debt—the

lucky ones that is. Indeed, as students obtain access to ‘‘easy’’ money at an earlier

age it means that some will encounter consumer debt problems as early as their

freshman year of college and even in the senior year of high school. My data indicates that a substantial proportion of college student students exhaust their credit

limits within an academic semester—regardless of the amount of aggregate credit.

A $500 ‘‘introductory’’ line of credit in the fall semester can easily rise to $2,000

to $4,000 by the end of the academic year. For many of these students, a realistic

credit limit can make the difference between surviving their financial ‘‘learning

curve’’ or becoming an academic casualty of competitive consumption or shrinking

public education budgets.

As major credit card companies become leading student loan providers, competition for young clients will continue to escalate with students learning the refinement of debt management techniques like the ‘‘credit card shuffle’’ and the ‘‘hidden

debt’’ or rotating student loan game. This explains how the credit card industry is

increasing student credit card debt capacity (it is now common to find undergraduate students with credit card debts of over $20,000) through public subsidies

such as student loans and low-cost tuition at public universities. Unfortunately, the

consequences of mounting credit card debt are not equally borne, especially amongst

students from low-income, minority, and first-generation college backgrounds.

Hence, the marketing of high-interest consumer loans to college students—before

they begin full-time employment—has major implications to future societal trends

such as college retention and graduation rates, racial and ethnic social inequality,

rising health problems including anxiety and clinical depression, future matriculation in graduate programs, homeownership, career mobility, bankruptcy filings, retirement patterns, and even the decision to have children.15 It also has profound implications to the national savings rate—which is increasingly becoming a foreign

policy issue—as the Consumer Bankruptcy Project of the Harvard Law School reports a 51 percent increase in filers under 25 years old between 1991 and 1999.

These bankruptcy filers accounted for nearly 7 percent of all bankruptcies at the

end of the 1990’s which is a striking finding in view of the brief number of years

that they have spent in the full-time workforce.16

Clearly, the credit card industry has proven itself incapable of self-regulation

while administrators of large public institutions have demonstrated greater interest

in increasing credit card royalties than in fulfilling their responsibility to ensure the

graduation of their students with the lowest possible level of financial debt. It is

imperative that college administrators begin to formulate a code of conduct that is

enforceable and with effective sanctions on unrepentant credit card marketers. As

the banking industry emphasizes that credit card debt is an individual decision that

requires individual level behavioral changes, it is important to note that this learning curve benefits primarily the top ten credit card companies. And, that these behavioral changes are the product of over a decade of costly and highly persuasive

mass marketing campaigns. According to a representative of the American Banking

Association, the credit card industry should not be criticized for marketing to teenVerDate 11-MAY-2000 07:36 Oct 29, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00053 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 89958.TXT SBANK4 PsN: SBANK4
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agers since Americans are essentially fair game for all corporations beginning at the

age of 3. Consequently, without legislative restrictions on credit card marketing and

the implementation of objective, practical, and effective financial literacy/education

programs in high school and in college, the student credit card debt problem will

become a social crisis of far greater proportions.

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PREPARED STATEMENT OF ELLEN FRISHBERG

DIRECTOR, STUDENT FINANCIAL SERVICES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Senator Sarbanes and Members of the Committee, it is my honor to appear before

you today to represent the interests of the students of the Johns Hopkins University, in the great State of Maryland, to discuss financial literacy, and credit card

usage among college students. As you know, Johns Hopkins is a decentralized,

multifaceted research university, and I cannot presume to speak for all the divisions

of the university. My 13-year experience there, helping students to pay for college,

has been primarily with traditional undergraduate students—and at that endeavor

we are a small, selective private college of 4,000. However, Hopkins does educate

more than 17,000 students each year through our programs, both full- and parttime, graduate and undergraduate, in eight divisions, at nine campuses, and on

three continents, and my remarks do touch many of these learners in some way.

Hopkins is proud of our outcomes—our students succeed and graduate in impressive numbers, and more than in any other school in the Nation, they go on to graduate and professional education. This has made our undergraduates an attractive

market for financial companies who are looking for lifelong customers. I have never

wanted for student loan lenders willing to lend to our students and their families—

with a default rate of less than 2 percent, even with an average graduating debt

of $16,200, our students have established themselves as good payers. Solicitation of

our students starts early—many freshmen arrived on campus this past weekend

armed with credit cards they received their senior year of high school. It appears

that lists are available to the direct mail marketers from a variety of sources, long

before the students register at school. However, they also arrive without understanding of how that credit card works—what is APR, compound interest, and why

they only have to pay a small amount each month.

Because of the ease of getting credit, the lack of financial savvy on the part of

these otherwise very bright students, and the unchecked solicitation and giveaways

that were going on during orientation, in 1994 the Dean of Students decided it was

best to prohibit credit card vendors from the Homewood Campus. At about that

same time, my staff and I became alarmed at the growing number of students who

reported credit card problems—in some cases, causing them to have to leave school

for a time to repair their financial health (I have a statement from one former student appended to this document—he was a poor, inner-city Baltimore child who was

motivated and mentored by family, counselors, and clergy—and he became a successful graduate and attorney, but not before falling victim to the easy allure of

credit card debt). Keeping credit cards out of the hands of students is a difficult

task. We know that credit is not always a bad thing—it provides for emergencies,

allows students to shop on the Internet, sometimes for used books to keep their

costs low, and gives them air miles to help keep the cost of travel down—our students do come from all 50 States. However, we thought that if we made sure that

our student loan and other financial services vendors were not cross marketing

financial products to the database of students they were lending to, it would help

to reduce the direct mail and Internet offers that came because of the student’s relationship with the university.

For a variety of reasons, the university decided to participate in the William D.

Ford Direct Loan program, which took private lenders out of the student loan equation for our need-based loans. While we have no empirical evidence, we believe that

this decision has also reduced the number and type of solicitations that our students

received for other financial products, including credit cards. Our concern remains

that if you or I get into credit trouble, we have ways out—home equity loans or

mortgage refinancing. If our students get in trouble, their options are limited—

sometimes to their unknowing parents.

However, we are not so naı ̈ve as to believe that we can restrict or control the

behavior of our students, who live their lives on the Internet—and if you ever

searched on the web, you know that pop-up credit card offers are a way of life.

Speaking of the web, colleges and universities have offered new web services to students to ease getting through administrative processes, including allowing tuition to

be paid by credit cards. While Hopkins does not allow this for full-time students,

we can see how it could help to get students into trouble. Because of the short time

it takes to apply for and receive a credit card, some students will follow the path

of least resistance and opt for credit card payment rather than a student loan. Compared to the process of applying for a Federal student loan, which can require up

to 6 weeks and numerous applications and forms, credit cards are easier.

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Our alumni association does offer an affinity card—the JHU card, but they are

not permitted to market it to current students. In financial aid, we are pleased to

have that card available as some of the proceeds come back to the annual scholarship budget to help fund needy students. But we are also happy that the marketing

is restricted to graduating seniors.

What we as administrators can do is:

• Be aware of the cross-marketing that our vendors do—whether it is the ID and

stored value card vendor or our student and alternative loan vendors.

• Use our stored value/debit cards as important learning tools—credit cards on

training wheels.

• Encourage students to use the opt-out service of the major credit bureaus.

• Use our role as educators to teach about compound interest, capitalization, and

credit reports, at the same time we are doing student loan default prevention.

Many students and parents are concerned about this topic—whenever I mentioned

that I was coming here, there was universal agreement that a problem exists. My

husband, an elementary school teacher, was a credit card executive in a former

career. He believes that the banks need to take responsibility to offer a national

education program at the high school level—as the use of cards will not go away.

He says it is like sex education, educating young people about birth control after

the pregnancy occurs is not very helpful.

The card industry can also help us with better disclosure in account statements,

so that young people do not think that paying the minimum is sufficient, more programs like Life Skills, offered by USA Funds, and restricting their marketing to

those who can afford to pay—not the students without the financial safety net and/

or parental resources to fall back on.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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STATEMENT OF A JOHNS HOPKINS GRADUATE, NOW AN ATTORNEY

Timeline of My Credit Experience

Spring–Summer 1995

• I am young and finally free from my parents. The desire to spend money the way

I choose coupled with the lure of campus flyers that proclaim ‘‘No Annual Fee Student Visa/MasterCard’’ induce me to begin applying for credit.

• I apply for and receive my first three credit cards—one of them with a $1,000

credit limit, another with a 17.99 percent interest rate. Rather than explaining

the effect of the interest rate on the time it will take to pay off the debt, the cards

simply play up the low $15 minimum monthly payment.

• By the end of the summer I would have 4 credit cards, destroying one of the original three and picking up two more, including a department store credit card, in

its place. My credit limits totaled $3,700 at this point. My major credit purchases

were a 3-CD shelf stereo system and an Apple computer.

Fall 1995–Spring 1996

• Three of my four credit cards are maxed out because of the computer and its accessories. I begin to use the fourth for groceries, clothing, and other miscellaneous

items.

• During registration week and all through the fall, I see credit vendors outside of

the campus bookstore giving away free T-shirts, mugs, and other gifts for merely

filling out a credit card application. Driven partially by the drive to see how many

cards I could get, and also because the freebies were nice, I began to apply for

these cards also. Almost without exception, I would be approved for generous

amounts of credit.

• I cannot fully remember what I would use my credit for, but I know that I was

not using it responsibly. I would charge concert tickets, trips to the movie theater,

nights dining out, tickets for college functions—basically anything I wanted to do

but did not have cash on hand for.

• By the spring of 1996, I had at least 8 credit cards, all of them with balances,

and credit debt approaching $5,000. I only needed to be a student to get credit

cards. As long as they knew I was a student, creditors would lend me money without regard to my lack of income (my only source of income was a Federal work

study job working 10 hours per week at $5.25/hour).

Fall 1998

• I am now married. Combined, my wife and I have 13 credit cards, more than

$11,000 in credit card debt and we earn $18,500 annually. Two of the cards that

I have had since 1995 have increased my credit limit by $500 every 6 months for

the preceding 2 years, making their combined credit limit almost $6,000.

• After years of financially irresponsibility, I decide to finally get my financial house

in order. This task is made somewhat easier by the fact that, by never being late

with a payment, I have a nearly perfect credit history.

• I begin to seriously talk with my college financial aid advisors. I acquire financial

software and begin reading books on credit literacy. For the first time I learn that,

thanks to the magic of compound interest, I would probably spend the rest of my

life paying off credit cards if I continued to make the minimum payments. I learn

that making payments on time does not help my credit rating in the short-term

because my debt to income ratio is high and because I have high balances on the

credit cards. I realized that your credit rating affects your ability to get a house,

a car, and even a job.

• I begin the slow process of defeating my credit card debt through a combination

of increasing my monthly payments as much as my wife and I could afford and

by paying down my credit cards with student loans left over from my final year

of college.

Present

• Thanks to self-education about credit, coupled with strict financial management,

my wife and I were able to pay off our last credit card in September 2001. We

destroyed most of the original 13 cards and today only have 2 of those cards left

(for emergencies of course).

• I have been able to use my credit to my advantage to secure commercial educational loans to fund my professional school education, to buy an affordable used

car, and to buy a wonderful town home.

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The Moral of My Story

My story actually resonates through college campuses. Thousands, perhaps even

hundreds of thousands of young, financially irresponsible 18-year-olds leave home

each year in search of social and of financial freedom from their parents. These 18-

year-olds are easy prey for credit card advertisements that play up ‘‘no annual fee’’

and ‘‘low minimum monthly payment’’ while offering free gifts as bonuses for applying for cards. By no means, however, does the onus fall totally on credit card companies. Although there were resources that I could utilize at my college, many colleges

perhaps do not offer entering students programs and services designed to help them

make wise decisions about their credit. Many of these 18-year-olds, including myself

at that age, also need to own up to the responsibility that freedom demands of them

by educating themselves in the manner that I eventually did.

I do not have all the answers. I do know, however, that the ability and willingness

of an 18-year-old college student to begin to amass a credit debt of $11,000 with

13 credit cards raises questions that demand answers and action on the part of the

student, the educational institution, Congress, and the credit card companies.

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PREPARED STATEMENT OF NATALA K. HART

DIRECTOR, STUDENT FINANCIAL AID, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, my name is Natala Hart, and I am

honored to be sitting before you today. As the Director of Student Financial Aid at

The Ohio State University, I see in our week each day the growing importance of

basic financial skills for today’s students. In my opinion, those skills can be as important as the excellent academic knowledge students received at Ohio State.

The matter of financial literacy has emerged as the leading financial concern

among parents sending their children to Ohio State. We believe that this is reflective of a national concern about the extensive opportunities for credit, including

credit among students still in high school and as young as 16. I myself am a parent

of a 13-year-old and find it necessary to already begin coaching Katie about credit,

and its proper and improper uses.

We in the Office of Student Financial Aid entered into a surprising view of the

role of credit as we studied the profile of the small number of former OSU students

who default on their student loans. What we learned was that the vast preponderance of those who defaulted on their student loans had even higher consumer debt,

most often the result of credit card use. We do not know if this usage occurred while

in college or after, but it had a dramatic, negative effect on their ability to meet

their obligations to repay their Federal student loans.

We also learned from our colleagues assisting students in our residence hall system that a small but troubling number of students were arriving at Ohio State

deeply in credit card trouble. They defined credit card trouble as being so consumed

by concern about paying credit card bills that the students could not adequately

focus on their primary purpose of working on their education.

Our colleagues, Student Affairs, also conducted a study that highlighted the same

issues: A very high percentage of college students are in credit card debt far too

large and proving disruptive to their studies. I have provided Committee staff with

a copy of that study by Dr. Andrea Dowhower.

Finally, we were ourselves educated by Dr. Lucia Dunn, an Ohio State economist,

who has developed a ‘‘Debt Condition Index,’’ part of a ‘‘Debt Stress Index’’ that

identifies the point at which debt begins to negatively affect the life of Americans.

What Are We Doing About Credit Issues?

Ohio State has taken several proactive steps to assist both students who are over

their heads in debt or who need to avoid being in that position.

• We have instituted as part of our Office of First Year Experience (FYE) Success

Series a special week for financial literacy. • We have enacted a campus policy that limits credit card solicitation on campus. • Ohio State has required as part of its agreement with the single credit card company approved by the campus funding for a debt counseling position in our Mary

Daniels Student Wellness Center. • My office has added a senior staff position dedicated to Debt Management that

will collaborate with the debt-counseling center. • We have and will participate in providing feedback to several groups developing

excellent training materials about dealing with finances and avoiding debt. Those

include:

—The Financial Survival Program by the Consumer Federation of America and

MasterCard International.

—Life Skills Series by USA Funds.

—OSU developed courses on use of credit cards and basic financial skills.

The Ohio State study by Dr. Dowhower has been repeated with results available

in the next few months. We know from preliminary findings that fewer students

reported reaching the maximums on their credit cards. (In 2000, 73.8 percent of students had not ‘‘maxed out’’ a credit card; in 2002 the percent increased to 84.3 percent.) However, that may be because students have higher balances because the

amount of their monthly balance has not changed too much. Of concern is their response to the balance on the credit cards: In 2000, 26.1 percent had greater than

a $500 balance compared to 23.1 percent in 2002.

The Ohio State policy to limit credit card solicitation came from a recommendation of our Council on Student Affairs, one of the most important university student,

faculty, and staff committees. The Council learned that as a public institution

governed by Ohio law, we could not totally ban credit card solicitation on campus

due to First Amendment law governing commerce. We could, however, limit the

‘‘time, place, and manner’’ in which credit card companies approached our students.

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The proposal being implemented restricts solicitation to the beginning of academic

terms, eliminates solicitation without incentives of limited value such as soda or Tshirts, and defines educational initiatives that will be provided under the terms of

the successful contract bidder. We believe that these limits will result in students

who chose credit card access for the right reasons.

I would like to describe our coursework in basic financial education before closing.

We have learned through Dr. Mabel Freeman and her staff in our Office of First

Year Experience that in the transition to college, it is most often the third week

of their initial enrollment that students who do not have basic financial skills discover they need those skills. We offer courses in constructing a budget, managing

a checking account, good and poor uses of credit cards, and even saving and investing, emphasizing not going into debt as a fundamental component of saving and

investing.

Last year, we offered 11 courses at hours convenient to the students. More than

1,500 class attendance hours were recorded. Students were required to write one

paragraph reflection on what they learned. Examples of their comments (paraphrased) were:

‘‘I learned that completing college is actually the best investment I can make.’’

‘‘Through the class, it was clear that I should try to avoid credit cards other than

for real emergencies.’’

‘‘I really didn’t understand how to balance a checkbook—and I didn’t want to

admit that even to myself.’’

We believe that financial literacy is a critical component of our students’ educational success and their success as alumni of Ohio State. We would be pleased

to assist the Committee as it considers financial education as a requirement for

young credit card recipients.

Thank you.

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1Financial Services, Student Monitor, Ridgewood, NJ, Spring 2001. 2 College Student Credit Card Usage, Working Paper #65, Credit Research Center, McDonough

School of Business, Georgetown University, June 2002 (available at www.msb.edu/prog/crc and

held in Senate Banking Committee files).

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL E. STATEN

DIRECTOR, CREDIT RESEARCH CENTER

MCDONOUGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Introduction

Good morning, Chairman Sarbanes and Members of the Committee. My name is

Michael Staten. I am Professor of Management and Director of the Credit Research

Center at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. The Center

is a nonpartisan, academic research center devoted to studying the economics of consumer and mortgage credit markets. Over its 28-year history the Credit Research

Center has generated over 100 research studies and papers, most of which examine

the impact of public policy on credit markets. Throughout its history, the Center’s

research program has been supported by a mix of grants from the public sector (that

is, National Science Foundation, Federal Trade Commission) and unrestricted private sector grants from foundations and corporations made to its host university on

behalf of the Center. I have served as the Center’s Director since 1990.

As students head back to college campuses this fall, a perennial debate will resume over the problems some of them will have in handling their credit cards. Marketing research surveys indicate that about 57 percent of all full-time undergraduates own a general-purpose credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express) in their own name.1 From the sad anecdotes portrayed in the news media,

one could get the impression that students are awash in debt, victims of relentless

marketing by big credit card companies and incapable of controlling their urge to

charge.

Along with my co-author, Professor John Barron (Purdue University), I recently

completed a study for the Credit Research Center at Georgetown University that

offers new evidence on student card usage, evidence that paints quite a different

picture.2 The report provides benchmark measures of college student credit card

usage. The analysis utilizes a pooled sample of over 300,000 credit card accounts

randomly selected from the portfolios of 5 of the top 15 general-purpose credit card

issuers in the United States.

Discussions of college student card usage in both the policy arena and the popular

press have been based mostly on anecdotes and self-reported survey evidence. To

our knowledge the Georgetown study marks the first time account-level information

has been pooled across major issuers to create a statistically reliable database for

examining the actual usage and performance of credit cards marketed to college students. Consequently, the results should be helpful in grounding subsequent discussion on facts rather than anecdotes.

In the remainder of my testimony, I would like to share with you some results

from our study. There is much evidence that college students are as responsible as

the rest of us when it comes to their card usage behavior, and are more sensible

in some respects. Whether or not they use credit cards wisely is a subjective question that depends upon your own views of how credit and credit cards should be

used. But a dramatic lack of sophistication among students in handling this powerful payment tool is not apparent in the data.

College Students and Credit Card Usage

The analysis compares behavior across three types of accounts: Those opened

through college student card marketing programs; those opened by young adults

aged 18–24 through normal marketing channels (for example, not through dedicated

student marketing programs); and those opened by older adults through normal

marketing channels. All accounts analyzed in this study were opened during the

period mid-1998 until early 2000 and were observed over a 12-month period during

2000–2001.

The analysis follows a study plan that was originally proposed by the U.S. General Accounting Office in response to a request from Members of Congress, but was

never executed by GAO due to budget constraints. The study is similar to the GAO

study plan in the range of cardholder behaviors to be examined and shares its focus

on comparing the activity of recently-opened student accounts to the experience of

accounts opened recently through conventional (nonstudent) marketing programs.

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One of the first findings of the study was the fact that any random sample of open

accounts contains a significant number of accounts that exhibit no activity during

a 12-month period. Such dormant or ‘‘inactive’’ accounts may reflect a credit card

being held in reserve by the owner for an emergency, or a credit card that has been

discarded or destroyed by the owner without the issuer being notified. The incidence

of such ‘‘emergency/destroyed’’ cards varied substantially across the five companies

in our sample, sufficiently that we could not determine a reliable ‘‘average’’ rate of

inactivity among open accounts. Nevertheless, it is clear that any discussion of student credit card usage that makes projections of student card debt based on the

number of credit cards owned (for example, the number of open accounts) will likely

overstate the actual use of credit cards.

The analysis in the report is restricted to a sample of more than 300,000 active

accounts, each of which was followed for a 12-month period during 2000–2001. Active accounts are defined as accounts with charge activity, payment, positive balance, or some other posting of activity at any point during the observation period.

Given this large sample size, the random sampling approach adopted by the participating companies, the market share and national scope of the companies providing

the data, and the use of weights to reflect the relative number of cards issued across

the various groups by each company, the findings reported below can be considered

representative of accounts opened at major credit card issuers during the period from

mid-1998 through early 2000 that were active during the 2000–2001 period.

Results

Credit Balances, Credit Limits, and Utilization Rates

• The average balance of an active student credit card account ($552) is approximately one-third the size of the average balance of an active nonstudent account

of a young adult ($1,465), and one-fourth the size of the average balance of an

active older adult account ($2,342).

Balance by Type of Account

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• The mean credit limit for student accounts ($1,395) is less than 40 percent of the

mean for nonstudent accounts of young adults ($3,581) and less than 20 percent

that of adult accounts ($7,436).

Credit Limits by Type of Account

• At 45 percent, the mean utilization rate across all student accounts (percent of

credit line tapped) is higher than the utilization rate for older adult accounts (36

percent) and about the same as the utilization rate for nonstudent accounts held

by young adults (46 percent), despite much higher credit limits for these other

groups. Among cardholders in all three groups who have credit limits above

$1,000, student accounts have significantly lower utilization rates.

Utilization by Size of Credit Line and Type of Account

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Card Usage: Cash Advances, Paying the Full Balance, and Finance Charges

• Student accounts are substantially less likely to use their credit cards for cash

advances.

• Among accounts with positive balances, the student accounts are somewhat more

likely in any given month to pay the prior balance in full.

• A student account is less likely to incur finance charges in a given month, but

more likely to incur fees, either for being late or for being over the credit limit.

The average finance charge incurred on student accounts in a given month is $7.

Only 5 percent of student accounts incur a finance charge greater than $26 in a

given month.

Delinquency Rates and Charge-offs

• Delinquency rates on both student accounts and young adult, nonstudent accounts

are higher than for older adult accountholders. In a given month, 12 percent of

active student accounts are past due, versus about 11 percent for other young

adults under age 25 and 8 percent for adults 25 and older. However, among student accounts that have large balances (that is, accounts with an outstanding balance greater than $1,000) student account delinquency rates are substantially

lower than for similar accounts held by other young adults under age 25.

Delinquency Rates by Size of Balance and Type of Account

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• About 3.6 percent of student accounts charge-off annually, compared to 2.8 percent of young adult, nonstudent accounts and 1.6 percent of older adult accounts.

The median dollar amount charged off on student accounts is $1,133, vs. $2,217

for young adult, nonstudent accounts and $4,919 for older adult accounts. Largedollar charge-offs are not common among student accounts given their substantially lower average balances. Considering only charge-offs that exceed $5,000,

student account losses are rare. For every 10,000 accounts of each type, the dataset indicates there would be 77 adult accounts with charge-offs exceeding $5,000

over a 1 year period, 58 such charge-offs for nonstudent accounts of young adults,

but only 2 such charge-offs for student accounts.

Size of Charge-offs by Type of Account

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3 College Students and Credit Cards, U.S. General Accounting Office, Report GAO–01–773,

June 2001, pp 35–40.

• Over time, student accounts mature and performance converges to that of young

adult, nonstudent accounts. More specifically, within about 18 months of the account opening date, student accounts exhibit a frequency of serious delinquency

(90+ days) and a likelihood of charge-off nearly identical to that of nonstudent

accounts held by cardholders under the age of 25.

Delinquency Rates (90+ days) on Active Accounts

By Number of Months Since the Account Opened

Summary

The data indicate that, on average, accounts marketed to college students have

lower credit limits and smaller balances than accounts of similar age that were

opened by young adults through issuers’ conventional (nonstudent) marketing programs. Compared to accounts recently opened by older adults (age 25 and older),

student balances and limits are substantially lower.

About 88 percent of student accounts are current (for example, pay their accounts

as agreed) in a given month, compared to about 88 percent of young adult, nonstudent accounts and 92 percent of older adult accounts. Although recently opened student accounts have a higher likelihood of charging-off compared to other groups, the

dollar amounts at risk on delinquent accounts and the actual losses on charged-off

accounts are substantially lower. Further, the delinquency and charge-off experience

for student accounts becomes similar to nonstudent accounts of young adults for accounts open more than 1 and 11⁄2 years. These findings are consistent with issuers’

statements that they establish student accounts with relatively low credit limits

with the expectation that the large majority of new, young cardholders will learn

how to manage a credit card, to establish a credit history, and to become longerterm customers.3

Conclusions and Recommendations

I understand that this Committee is interested in the financial literacy of young

people. As you know, national coalitions of industry, Government, and nonprofit organizations have committed substantial resources to such efforts in recent years.

They have already created a tremendous range of educational materials and programs on personal finances for both children and adults, with the promise of more

to come. I believe these efforts are essential to the long-term goal of improving the

money management skills of most Americans who are faced with an increasingly sophisticated array of financial service products.

Clearly, there are some college students who build up large balances that could

well lead to payment problems, but that is true of any cardholder population. I certainly see no evidence from the Georgetown study that students are misusing cards

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4Financial Services, Student Monitor, Ridgewood, NJ, Spring 2001.

so frequently as to warrant singling them out as a group for special protections from

marketing solicitations.

In that regard, I am concerned about some proposals that have been circulating

at both the State and Federal level which would either limit or ban the marketing

of credit cards to college students. Proposals that would ban on-campus marketing

of credit cards seem particularly misguided, given the available evidence from annual marketing surveys about how and when students obtain their cards. For students who own a general-purpose credit card in their own name, the largest single

source in 2001 was direct mail offers, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all cards.4

Only about 20 percent of cards were obtained from sources on campus (take-one displays; issuer reps at ‘‘tabling’’ events). The same survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of undergraduates in 2001 who owned a general-purpose credit card in their

own name said they received their first one before they arrived on campus their

freshman year.

Consequently, restrictions that would ban on-campus marketing would not stop

the majority of students from acquiring cards. Moreover, such restrictions would

eliminate probably the only opportunity for any face-to-face contact between a card

issuer representative and the cardholder. Present marketing practices may not take

full advantage of this opportunity for distributing educational materials and messages, but an outright ban on such marketing eliminates the opportunity.

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When First Card in Own Name was Obtained

Methods of Obtaining General Purpose Cards in Students’ Own Name

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Even if card marketing to students could be legislated away, such action does not

seem to be in students’ best interest. The 4 years that most undergraduates spend

in school are arguably the best time to get acquainted with credit cards. The undergraduate experience gives young adults an opportunity to transition from life at

home to life on their own. Most students spend 4 years with one foot at home and

one foot in the real world, learning about one but sheltered by the other. Learning

personal financial management is part of that real-world experience.

A general-purpose credit card offered with relatively low limits gives students an

introduction to the most powerful and versatile payment device on the planet. Think

of it as the ‘‘training wheels’’ approach to learning to use a credit card. Students

learn that their wants usually exceed their resources, and that they must manage

that tension. They learn that a purchase made with plastic today and forgotten

tomorrow can come back to haunt them at the end of the month with the arrival

of the credit card statement. They learn that the credit card company does not forget that you have made the purchase, nor does it forget if you do not pay. For those

who choose to revolve, a balance that seems to fall far too slowly month after month

kindles a new urge to find gainful employment during the summer, or after graduation.

All of these lessons must be learned eventually. I believe it is better to learn them

with the relatively small exposure permitted by the lower limits that are typical of

cards obtained through college student marketing programs. Postponing the lesson

until after graduation would raise the financial stakes and put young consumers at

even greater risk.

It surely cannot be too difficult for our best and brightest youth to learn about

cards and card marketing while in college. Artificial limits on credit card marketing

to this group will not improve their financial literacy. The wiser course seems to

be to facilitate student access to the information they need to make sound decisions

about using credit and the importance of maintaining a good credit history.

I thank you for the opportunity to appear today and would be happy to answer

any questions.

—————

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JONATHAN MILLER

TREASURER, THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify

today, and I am particularly grateful that you are shining a spotlight on the important issue of financial literacy among college students.

It is fitting that the hearing is being held today, because, as we speak, tens of

thousands of young men and women across the country are, for the first time, leaving the protections of home and entering college. The first few weeks of college have

always presaged many rites of passage. Choosing a major. Attending your first football game. Rushing for a fraternity or sorority.

But a new rite of passage has emerged recently for college freshmen on campuses

across the country. Applying for your first credit card.

Credit Card Marketing on College Campuses

The opportunities are endless. If you have been to a ball game or a public event

recently, you likely have been barraged by credit card companies offering some gift

or service in return for filling out an application. For college students, this is almost

an everyday occurrence. Beginning with freshmen orientation, at activities fairs, in

student unions and lunchrooms, in the campus bookstore, even in the privacy of

their dorm rooms, students are tempted by unavoidable offers from dozens of different credit card companies. It is rare to find a bulletin board on campus that is

not nearly covered by card offers.

The sales pitches can be irresistible. Thousands of dollars of ‘‘free money’’ if you

just fill out this form. And by the way, here is a T-shirt or a chance to win an enticing vacation. The offer might come from a friend who needs your help in completing

his quota of completed applications. The card might come with a so-called ‘‘teaser’’

rate—a low introductory interest rate that looks too good to be true—unless, of

course, you read the fine print and find out that the rate balloons dramatically within a few months. As the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported last year, some

credit card ‘‘vendors created a carnival atmosphere with loud music and games . . .

mask[ing] the responsibilities of owning a credit card, especially since there was no

discussion of the consequences of misusing a credit card.’’

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In some circumstances, the solicitation turns ugly. Last year, the Kentucky State

Treasurer’s Commission on Personal Savings and Investment held a hearing on the

issue of credit cards on college campuses. A University of Kentucky student testified

that one credit card marketer pushed his way into her freshman dorm room and

would not leave until one of her roommates filled out a credit card application. This

young woman, for obvious reasons, felt violated. The GAO study revealed that this

example is not unique: Students reported that vendors followed them around campus when their initial sales pitches were rejected. Sometimes even students are

manipulated into revealing personal information in exchange for gifts.

The economic incentives that encourage these types of aggressive credit card solicitations are enormous. Many universities, struggling to fund vital programs

because of State budget cuts, have signed multimillion dollar contracts to give a particular company exclusive rights to market its credit cards on campus. Student organizations raising funds to pay for their expenses have been recruited as sales agents

by credit card companies—these groups often are compensated $25–$200 a day to

table the student union and are paid $1–$5 for every completed application. Peer

pressure has become an invaluable sales tool.

Impact of Credit Cards on College Campuses

For many college students, owning and using a credit card does not pose any serious problems and offers some advantages. For instance, in an emergency situation,

where cash is not available, a credit card can be invaluable. When properly educated

about their use, credit cards can be a useful tool to learn about personal finance

and budgeting. Particularly when parents are involved, young people can be taught

important lessons about financial responsibility and accountability. Credit cards,

more-over, offer a vehicle, albeit an imperfect one, for young people to develop a

positive credit rating. For the majority of students, credit card debt is not a problem—recent surveys revealed that almost 60 percent of students pay their credit

card balances in full every month.

However, for a significant and growing minority of college students, credit card

use and misuse can be devastating. Without proper education on credit card use,

and with only self-serving, on-campus promotions instructing them, students often

sign up for numerous credit cards, making purchases up to the credit limit on each.

In a telling study by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), it was revealed

that students who obtained credit cards at student union tables had more cards and

higher debt balances than those that signed up elsewhere.

Instead of the false promise of ‘‘free money,’’ students wind up building mountains

of credit card debt before they even have an income stream to pay for it. Students

are tempted by promotions on campus and through the media to live beyond their

means—many do not understand the consequences of incurring excessive debt and

making late payments, both of which can severely damage their credit ratings or

their financial health in general.

The GAO report concluded that because of their inexperience, college students are

more likely than other credit card customers to accumulate significant debts. That

is why those companies that sign up cardholders with higher risks of default—in

exchange for higher interest rates—often target college students. Students see low,

seemingly easy minimum payments, but do not realize they could spend much of

the rest of their lives repaying their debts.

Let me give you one example. Suppose a student today built up a credit card balance of $3,000 on a credit card that charged a 19.8 percent interest rate. If that

student never made another purchase, and dutifully made the minimum payment

each month, it would take her 39 years to repay that debt. In this example, the student would have to pay out over $10,000 in interest—on only a $3,000 balance.

Our Commission took testimony revealing that this was not an uncommon experience. One Kentucky student built up over $6,000 in debt in her freshman year, and

was still trying to pay it off 4 years later, having already paid more in interest that

what she put on the card. Various studies revealed that the average student credit

card debt ranges from $500 to more than $3,000. Meanwhile, in 1999, a record

100,000 Americans under the age of 25 filed for bankruptcy.

The impact on students can be more than financial. My Commission received testimony that the stress of credit card debt has significant emotional, even physical

effects on these young adults, compounding the stress of leaving the shelter of home

and family. One Indiana administrator reported that they ‘‘lose more students to

credit card debt than academic failure.’’ And in an extreme case, a National Merit

Scholar headed for law school was reported to have hung himself in his closet after

racking up more than $14,000 in debt on twelve different credit cards.

The impact on students also poses numerous long-term problems. With many

college graduates already facing significant student loan debts, the added burden of

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growing credit card balances can leave many young men and women entering the

workforce with seemingly desperate debt problems. As a result, many young people

are forced to choose jobs solely on the basis of the starting salary offered, without

regard to suitability or personal satisfaction. This leads to further economic problems for the young worker when the job situation worsens, increasing the cycle of

debt and credit card dependency. It also appears to have the effect of shrinking the

pool of otherwise eligible and willing applicants for socially important, but less

lucrative entry level jobs in fields such as education and law enforcement.

Financial Illiteracy in the United States

It would be too easy, and in fact unfair, to pin the entire blame for this growing

phenomenon on the credit card companies and their representatives. While I believe

that some regulation of credit card marketing is necessary—and I will address these

reforms later—the problem is much greater than this. Indeed, credit card misuse

on college campuses is just a symptom of a much greater problem plaguing the Nation—the financial illiteracy of much of America.

Our education system is, in many ways, the envy of the world. Yet the same

schools that have produced brilliant scientists, physicians, and poets have also produced generations of financially illiterate Americans. We teach our children to master such difficult mathematics concepts as trigonometry and algebra, but we do not

teach them how to balance a checkbook. Many young people can discuss with great

insight the history of ancient civilizations, but are not cognizant of their own credit

histories or the significance of their credit reports. And as is clear by my earlier remarks, admission to college requires good grades and high scores on standardized

tests, but no specific knowledge on how to use—or not use—a credit card.

It is important to note that financial illiteracy is not simply a problem faced by

our youngest generation of Americans. In fact, it is an epidemic. When the country’s

national savings rate during a period of unprecedented prosperity dips below 1 percent, and when 12 percent of Americans have no retirement savings whatsoever, we

realize that financial illiteracy could leave many of America’s seniors desperately

needing financial assistance. When a growing number of individuals—particularly

the poor, elderly, and minority groups—fall victim to the scams of predatory lending, we realize that financial illiteracy leaves many Americans vulnerable to the loss

of their homes or retirement savings. And when the total household debt reaches

$7.3 trillion; with an average credit cardholder having over $8,000 in debt, we realize that financial illiteracy has a devastating effect on our Nation’s economy.

There are many organizations and individuals across the country trying to combat

the growing problems posed by financial illiteracy. Groups such as Junior Achievement and the National Council on Economic Education have developed excellent

curricula for promoting financial literacy among students of all ages. The Consumer

Federation of America and Cooperative Extension have joined to create ‘‘America

Saves,’’ a national program that promotes sound personal financial practices in several large cities. Additionally, many of my colleagues have developed outstanding

economic educational initiatives, such as Delaware Treasurer Jack Markel’s privatepublic partnership, ‘‘The Money School’’ and Ohio Treasurer Joe Deters’ free-to-thepublic ‘‘Women and Money’’ seminars. These valuable programs, however, only

reach a small minority of our population. And despite these efforts, financial illiteracy has grown over the past 25 years—a standard financial literacy test demonstrated a drop from a 57 percent average score in 1977 to 52 percent in 2000.

Legislation at the State and Federal level has been helpful, but falls far short of

solving these problems. Kentucky’s historic education reform of the late 1980’s requires financial literacy instruction for all students, but most public schools in the

State fail to address the subject, often because the teachers are uncomfortable lecturing on a topic with which they have little familiarity. The President’s recent ‘‘No

Child Left Behind’’ initiative allows for grant money to promote financial literacy

initiatives, but these programs are forced to compete with much more pressing educational needs such as reduction of class size and raising teacher pay.

Kentucky’s Experiment—Owensboro Saves!

My Commission on Personal Savings and Investment took a hard look at this

growing problem and devised a potential solution. Realizing that we could not fix

all of the problems created by financial illiteracy in the State in one fell swoop, we

decided instead to gather our resources and focus our efforts on one community:

Owensboro, a small city within a county of 90,000 residents.

On October 2, we will be launching Owensboro Saves!, a project uniting the entire

community’s leadership—from elected officials to school superintendents, from college presidents to constituency group activists, from labor leaders to Chamber officials and key employers. This public-private partnership will sponsor programming

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over the course of the next year to promote better financial literacy among all residents of the region, of all ages and incomes. We will host seminars on how to avoid

becoming a victim of predatory lending and how to complete an Earned Income Tax

Credit form. Volunteers will become money mentors for residents struggling to save

and invest. Activists will work with Catholic Charities to develop an Individual Development Account (IDA) program to enable the working poor to develop assets for

buying a home, saving for college, or starting a business. And we will hold a free

‘‘Women and Money’’ seminar, providing free advice to area women—who earn less,

receive fewer retirement benefits, and live longer than men.

But even more significantly, we hope to initiate permanent educational initiatives

to improve the region’s financial literacy. Working with the nationally-recognized

Daviess County School Superintendent Stuart Silberman, we will work to ensure

that every elementary, middle, and high school in the county develops sound, mandatory financial literacy courses for its students, to be in place by the 2003 school

year. We would like the financial literacy education to be systematic and widespread. To do so, we will build on existing resources and seek private funding and

support from community businesses to refine curricula, publish educational materials, and train teachers on financial literacy instruction.

At the same time, we are working with officials from the four institutions of

higher education in Owensboro to develop strong financial literacy curricula for college freshmen. It is my goal that every incoming student will be required to take

a mandatory financial literacy course upon matriculation. In the meantime, we will

develop with school administrators a code of conduct for credit card solicitation to

include this mandatory education as a prerequisite for owning a credit card.

We are aware that we will see both successes and failures with this experiment.

But our goal is to find out what works, and then to build a model that we can use

in communities across the State, perhaps around the Nation. It is my belief that

only through an intensive partnership of public officials and civic leaders can we

effectively tackle the growing problem of financial illiteracy plaguing the country,

and in particular, among our Nation’s youth.

Legislative Recommendations

Our Commission also believed that some legislation was necessary to help combat

the growing problem of credit card abuse on our college campuses. To better protect

our young people, the Commission found that several actions need to be taken in

Kentucky, through legislative, administrative, and/or programmatic means:

• Financial literacy should be taught in every elementary, middle, and high school

classroom in the State. Principals and teachers can draw on existing curricula and

resources, such as provided by the Kentucky Council on Economic Education, the

Cooperative Extension Offices and/or the Kentucky Bankers Association.

• Mandatory, meaningful financial literacy courses should be offered during freshman orientation of every Kentucky college or university. Commission members

will offer their expertise to help design suggested curricula, in cooperation with

the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU).

• Credit card companies should be required to register with colleges and universities in order to solicit on campus, and to abide by a Code of Conduct governing

solicitation methods. This Code should promote full disclosure of credit card terms

and prohibit the more egregious marketing practices, such as dormitory room

solicitations and the offering of prizes, gifts, or other monetary incentives to encourage applications from college students. This Code should be developed by the

State’s colleges and universities, with assistance offered by the Commission and

organizations such as CPE and AIKCU.

As a first step toward implementation of the Commission’s recommendations,

Commission Chair and State Representative Susan Westrom introduced House Bill

298 in the 2002 legislative session. The legislation would have required Kentucky

colleges and universities to develop codes of conduct for credit card solicitations on

college campuses prohibiting practices such as free gifts. It also instructed these

schools of higher education to require mandatory debt education and counseling sessions for incoming students. There was no ban on credit cards or even on marketing;

we recognized that such solutions would be ineffective since any one can be reached

through the mail or off-campus, where there would be no ability to monitor. Rather,

the universities—who supported this measure—would be charged with ensuring the

best interests of their students.

House bill 298 sailed through the State House unanimously and passed a Senate

committee without opposition. However, in the last few days of the session, the Senate leadership mysteriously did not allow House bill 298 to come up for a vote. This

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failure has been all too common across the country—a GAO survey revealed that

in the past few years, most credit card reform legislation in State legislatures has

died the same way—buried in a committee, without an opportunity for legislators

to cast an up or down vote.

I am very hopeful that as the public becomes more aware about this problem,

pressure will be too strong for legislators in Kentucky and across the country to

abandon this needed legislation. I am also hopeful that the rest of the country will

join States like Arkansas, Louisiana, and Virginia who have addressed these issues

on the legislative level.

But I believe more legislative action is needed—on the Federal level. Credit card

companies are national, sometimes multinational conglomerates, and for any regulation to be effective, it needs to come from the U.S. Congress. These corporations

have few ties to the university communities they target, and, as a result, are often

unresponsive to local concerns.

I believe that Congress can and should impose a real code of conduct covering the

actions of credit card companies on all of the Nation’s college campuses—prohibiting

incentives such as gifts, and banning the more aggressive sales practices such as

the recruitment of student groups that use peer pressure to complete applications.

Credit card companies should be forced to determine before they approve a card

whether the student could even afford to pay off a balance. Teaser rates—low introductory rates that balloon into much higher rates after only a few months—should

be restricted in marketing to college students.

Further, company disclosures should not be limited to the fine print of credit card

agreements and solicitations, where fees and penalties are often hidden or obscured.

All credit card materials should provide clear examples of how long it will take to

pay off the maximum debt permitted when the cardholder makes only minimum

payments, and examples of how much will be paid in interest by the cardholder

maintaining a balance over time. This common sense type of information is currently provided by banks to borrowers obtaining a home mortgage, and it helps inform borrowers of the true long-term cost of their debt.

Still, we will only be able to fully combat this problem with a much more comprehensive effort of promoting financial literacy. Mr. Chairman, I urge the Members

of this Committee, and I urge Congress to make financial literacy a high priority

for American education. When you develop standards for our students and teachers

to reach, please make knowledge of key financial concepts a requirement. And when

you determine funding for our Nation’s public schools and universities, please provide support for producing and publishing sound financial literacy curricula and

training for our Nation’s teachers.

A Public-Private Partnership

While such Federal measures will be valuable, a Washington mandate will not

solve the Nation’s financial illiteracy problem. Ultimately, the solution will come in

communities such as Owensboro, Kentucky, Gaithersburg, Maryland or Terre

Haute, Indiana, where community leaders must join in a public-private partnership

to better educate their citizens. Local leaders—from the worlds of politics, education,

and business—must join together to ensure that residents of their communities have

a firm grounding in personal finance concepts.

But it will also require a concerted effort from those in the industries who profit

from the accumulation of personal debt. In the process of my Commission’s work,

I have met with several representatives of the credit card industry. These individuals seem to be the same hard-working, ethical business leaders who have helped

to make our Nation and our economy unparalleled throughout the world. And they

have shared with me their sincere desire to protect our children from the unfair and

aggressive practices of those ‘‘bad actor’’ credit card companies who they say are a

small minority of their industry.

That is why I challenge the credit card companies to join us in our national effort

to protect college students from credit card debt and promote financial literacy. Today’s college students rarely review educational brochures and websites sponsored

by the credit card companies, no matter how well-meaning or how comprehensive

they may be.

Today, I challenge the credit card industry to put its money where its mouth is.

I ask the companies to make a substantial monetary commitment to the development of mandatory financial curricula for our Nation’s schools and colleges and to

train teachers to provide effective instruction on these issues. We do not need to

recreate the wheel—we simply should build on existing resources provided by the

outstanding organizations that have been working on these issues. Funding can

help us produce and publish materials that young people will read, understand, and

apply to their financial behavior.

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Similarly, I challenge all of those in the financial industry who profit from lending

and investment to make similar commitments. While this will pose some upfront

costs, in the end, our whole Nation will benefit from a more financially literate

citizenry.

The only truly successful efforts in this area reflect what I believe is the proper

role of Government. This is a problem that cannot be resolved by Government or

private institutions acting alone. Instead, Government should help equip people and

community organizations with the tools they need to solve their own problems.

Through partnerships with private industry and community leaders, State, and Federal Government officials can make a significant impact in better preparing our citizenry for the 21st Century economy and the challenges it poses. Only by working

together—elected officials, industry leaders, and community activists—can we tackle

the problems posed by our Nation’s financial illiteracy.

Ultimately, credit card debt is an issue of personal responsibility. But it is unfair

to hold college students accountable for behavior when they are subjected to high

pressure marketing tactics and do not have the financial literacy to make proper

economic decisions. Once given proper education on credit card use and misuse, individuals will then be accountable for their own financial behavior. And by empowering our citizens with the skills to manage their finances effectively, we can help

reduce our national reliance on social welfare programs and personal bankruptcy.

And maybe, a decade or so from now, there will be some new rites of passage for

our Nation’s youth. A rite of passage for every third grader to learn about the magic

of compound interest and the importance of savings. A rite of passage for every

eighth grader to study the stock market and American financial institutions. A rite

of passage for every high school senior to take a course on family budgeting and

income management. And finally, in some future September—before the football

games, before the fraternity rituals—a rite of passage for every college freshman to

be given solid instruction on credit and debt management to prepare them, as they

leave their parents’ nest, to build their own nest eggs.

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1 Jump$tart Coalition; American Savings Education Council, www.asec.org. 2 Americans for Consumer Education and Competition, National Survey of High School Seniors, February 2001. 3 Jump$tart Coalition, ‘‘From Bad to Worse: Financial Literacy Drops Further Among 12th

Graders,’’ April 23, 2002. 4 Nellie Mae, Undergraduate Students and Credit Cards, April 2002.

5GAO, College Students and Credit Cards, June 2001, GAO–01–773.

6 USPIRG, A Road Map to Avoiding Credit Card Hazards, www.truthaboutcredit.org. 7 USPIRG, The Credit Card Trap, April 2001.

8GAO, College Students and Credit Cards, June 2001, GAO–01–773.

9 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1999–2000 National

Postsecondary Student Aid Study. 10 Robert D. Manning, Gregory A. Guagnano, and Ray Kirshak, ‘‘Credit Cards on Campus: A

Growing Collegiate Crisis or Benign Societal Trend?’’ September 2002. 11 Ibid. 12The College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2001. 13The State PIRGs’ Higher Education Projection, The Burden of Borrowing, March 2002. 14 Nellie Mae, Undergraduate Students and Credit Cards, April 2002.

COLLEGE STUDENTS AND CREDIT CARD FACT SHEET

Incoming College Students Lack Financial Knowledge

• Only 10–20 percent of high school seniors nationwide will have had any personal

finance training by the time they graduate.1

• Eighty-two percent of high school seniors failed a 13-question personal financial

quiz examining their knowledge of issues like interest rates, savings, loans, credit

cards, and calculating net worth.2

• A 2002 survey of high school seniors concluded: ‘‘High school seniors know even

less about credit cards, retirement funds, insurance, and other personal finance

basics than they did 5 years ago.’’ 3

Credit Card Prevalence on Campus

• For the year 2001, 83 percent of undergraduate students had at least one credit

card, a 24 percent increase from 1998.4

• Over half (55 percent) of college students acquire their first credit card during

their first year in college.5

• Fifty-eight percent of college students report seeing on-campus credit card marketing tables for two or more days the first month of the semester.6

• Thirty-three percent of college students reported applying for a credit card at an

on-campus table. Of these, 80 percent cite free gifts as a reason for applying.7

• From 1999 to 2001, twenty-four State legislatures proposed or enacted laws restricting credit card marketing on campus.8 One of these States, California, has

enacted legislation that prohibits offering free gifts in return for applying for a

credit card at community and State colleges.

College Students in Credit Card Debt

• Over 44 percent of college students carried a balance on a credit card during the

1999–2000 school year. Among those students, the average credit card debt was

$3,066, while the median credit card debt was $1,435.9

• A random sample of students at George Mason University, conducted in 2002 by

Professor Robert Manning, found that among sophomores, juniors, and seniors

three-quarters had maxed out on at least one credit card.10

• The same survey found that of students with student loans, more than two-thirds

(68 percent) have used money from the loan to pay down credit card debt.11

Student Debt

• For the 2001–2002 academic year, the average annual cost—tuition, fees, room,

and board—was $23,578 at a 4-year private college, and $9,008 at a 4-year public

university.12

• In the 1999–2000 academic year nearly two in every three students—64 percent—

had Federal student loans. In percentage terms, this represents an increase of

more than 50 percent since 1992–1993.13

• At graduation, the average student holding student loans will have $20,402 in

total debt. Of this total, $3,262, or 16 percent, will be credit card debt. Yet more than one-third (34 percent) of the average college graduate’s monthly debt payment

will go to servicing credit card debt.14

Students in Their Own Words

• Debbie Alford, recent graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma: ‘‘My debt

was a huge cloud hanging over me. I felt ashamed about having put myself in

that position, but I should never have been able to get all those cards at such a

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15 ‘‘The Lure of Easy Credit Leaves More Students Struggling With Debt,’’ Chronicle of Higher

Education, June 15, 2001. 16 ‘‘Georgia Undergraduates Are Among College Students Piling On Credit Card Debt,’’ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 14, 2002. 17 ‘‘Credit Card Issuers Just LOVE Students,’’ News-Star, Monroe, LA, June 30, 2002.

young age. When you are 18, you think you know what you are doing with finances, but you really don’t.’’ 15

• Shilpa Hardas, a University of Georgia graduate: ‘‘It is a whole new world when

you first go to college. You see your name printed on a credit card and it is a

sense of financial power. It is like people are willing to give you money.’’ 16

• Christyna Lewis, a Louisiana youth: ‘‘A week after my 18th birthday I received

about 10 credit card offers and I was still in high school.’’ 17

—————

CONSUMER BANKERS ASSOCIATION NEWS RELEASE

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

CBA Financial Literacy Survey Shows Programs for College Students

Ninety-seven percent of banks responding to the Consumer Bankers Association’s

2002 Survey of Bank-Sponsored Financial Literacy Programs sponsor or partner

with a variety of financial literacy programs, with 45 percent supporting financial

education programs for college students.

Of those banks that offer college-based financial literacy programs, most (72 percent) are aimed at the general student population, while 59 percent said they direct

the programs to low- and moderate-income students and 47 percent said they were

directed to minorities.

‘‘The banking industry is providing many resources to promote financial literacy

on campus,’’ said Joe Belew, CBA President. ‘‘There is also widespread support of

public school programs, with 87 percent of banks supporting programs in some

way,’’ he said.

Among many examples, MBNA America, the Nation’s largest independent credit

card issuer, developed the Student Financial Education Service (SFES), an educational program designed to provide credit education and counseling services to

students and their parents.

MBNA presents a series of seminars at freshman orientations and campus events,

has reached thousands of students and projects that it will double its audience in

2002. As a resource to parents, MBNA offers a mini-seminar at ‘‘parents weekend’’

to educate parents on how to raise financially smart kids. In addition, MBNA has

recently partnered with College Parents of America to offer an alternative credit

product where parents can control the use of their students’ credit card.

Another institution, U.S. Bank, Minneapolis, MN, markets a broad range of bank

services directly on college campuses. According to Jim Marshall, Senior Vice President, U.S. Bank, ‘‘It is our job as a community partner to assist college students

with their financial affairs so when they graduate, they are financially responsible

people. We want them in control of their finances, to be aware of their budget limitations, and to use U.S. Bank as a financial tool.’’

U.S. Bank has branches on several campuses, as well as a branch within five

miles of 500 campuses. ‘‘Campus banking provides a wide variety of banking products that fit students lifestyles and makes it easy for them to manage their money,’’

said

Marshall.

AmSouth Bank, Birmingham, Alabama, has partnered with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) and public schools in low-income areas to offer seminars at 60 schools throughout the southeastern region. The program has reached

25,000 students, and is being expanded to reach 30,000 this year.

The CBA survey includes 68 bank and thrift institutions that hold 60 percent of

the total bank and thrift assets in the United States. The complete study is available at CBA’s website, www.cbanet.org.

The survey also provides details on programs to prepare people for homeownership, delivery financial literacy curricula to public schools and offer related services

such as tutoring, deliver advice on small business development, and support credit

counseling programs.

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STATEMENT OF KELLY PRESTA

VICE PRESIDENT, VISA U.S.A.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Visa U.S.A. appreciates the opportunity to offer comments to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs as it evaluates the importance of

financial literacy among college students.

Since 1991, Visa has been at the forefront of financial literacy efforts by developing research-based tools and materials designed to help consumers at every stage

in their financial life. Our program, Practical Money Skills for Life (available online

at www.practicalmoneyskills.com) is a culmination of more than 10 years of work

to deliver to consumers of all ages the best educational resources available.

PracticalMoneySkills.com is a free online resource designed to help educators, parents, students, and consumers practice better money management for life. Americans think that financial basics are as important as the three R’s traditionally

taught in school. In fact, according to a Visa survey, 77 percent of parents believe

personal money management is a subject ‘‘very important’’ to their children’s lives

as adults—second only to writing at 89 percent. And since many young adults today

graduate high school without even a basic knowledge of money management, like

how to create and stick to a budget, many learn money skills through the school

of trial and error.

To help today’s youths and consumers of all ages become financially savvy, Visa

has aligned with leading consumer advocates, educators, and financial institutions

to launch a national program to improve the Nation’s financial skills—Practical

Money Skills for Life. Working with our partners the Jump$tart Coalition for

Personal Financial Literacy, the National Consumers League, BigChalk, Lightspan.com, U.S. News and World Report Classroom Program, U.S. Hispanic Chamber

of Commerce, and the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators,

this cutting-edge Internet-based personal finance curriculum reaches more than

100,000 schools and 37 million students. These financial literacy tools are available

in English and Spanish.

In addition to providing online tools and resources via www.practical-moneyskills.com, Visa has created free classroom material that high school educators can

use to teach personal finance. Available online or in a binder format are teacher’s

guides, student worksheets and quizzes and interactive brain-teasers that can be

played by students via the Web or from a CD-ROM.

New for this fall, Visa has also created with the National Orientation Directors

Association and the Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators an educational program for college campuses. Geared to encourage peer learning, college students teaching other students, the new Practical Money Skills college presentation

and student work book will be offered free to every university in the United States.

Visa is hopeful that universities, students, and its member financial institutions will

answer the call to increase financial literacy on college campuses by teaching this

program to students.

Visa U.S.A. continues its efforts to bridge the digital divide by donating computer

equipment to schools in need and providing training for teachers to ensure that

schools have access to the equipment needed to take advantage of Practical Money

Skills for Life. Visa U.S.A. expects to continue this program by donating computer

labs to 10 high schools across the United States every year. To date, Visa has donated more than 45 computer labs nationwide.

Practical Money Skills for Life is educator-developed and educator-approved. In

fact, at the recent National Education Association’s Expo 2001, more than 94 percent of the educators surveyed graded the program an ‘‘A’’ or ‘‘B’’ and 98 percent

said they would recommend the program to a fellow educator.

Visa’s commitment to financial literacy extends beyond the fact that it is good for

business, we also believe it is the right thing to do. Our youth are graduating today

without the vital life skills necessary to ensure a successful life—like how to setup

a budget and how to save for the future. It is critical that children learn these important financial facts of life before leaving home. Money skills are learnings a student can take from the classroom to the boardroom.

Visa thanks the Banking Committee for the opportunity to submit comments and

we look forward to working with Members of the Committee and staff on this important topic.

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U.S. PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP PRESS RELEASE

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Testimony at a Senate Banking Committee hearing today on aggressive credit

card industry marketing to college students confirms the findings of reports by the

State PIRG’s that many college students, already at risk from massive student loan

debts, have their problems worsened by deceptive credit card offers.

Recent PIRG surveys of campus credit card marketing have documented that students who apply for cards at campus tables, in return for candy, trinkets, or Tshirts, have more cards, higher balances, and worse over-the-limit and delinquency

problems than other students.

‘‘Too often debt burden becomes a ball and chain for student borrowers after graduation. Many student borrowers are taking on unmanageable levels of debt to finance a college education,’’ said the State PIRGs’ Higher Education Advocate,

Ellynne Bannon. Bannon co-authored a March 2002 report on rising student loan

debts, based on an analysis of the Department of Education data. That study, ‘‘The

Burden of Borrowing,’’ found the following:

• An estimated 39 percent of student borrowers now graduate with unmanageable

levels of debt, meaning that their monthly payments are more than 8 percent of

their monthly incomes. In 1999–2000, 64 percent of students graduated with student loan debt, and the average debt has nearly doubled over the last 8 years to

$16,928.

• Forty-one percent (41 percent) of all graduating seniors carried credit card balances averaging $3,071. More of those students (48 percent) with student loans

had credit card debts, which averaged $3,176.

‘‘Colleges need to take aggressive action to police the credit card industry, which

has been under intensive regulatory and legal scrutiny for its marketing practices

in general, but wants to pitch cards indiscriminately to students who may not have

jobs or the ability to repay and who may already have serious student loan debt

problems,’’ said State PIRG Consumer Program Director Ed Mierzwinski. ‘‘Yet, even

though the Congress has moved swiftly to take up the credit card industry’s draconian bankruptcy bill, it has taken no action to rein in unfair credit card marketing

practices.’’

The State PIRG’s urged the Congress to do the following to stop unfair credit card

practices:

• Pass the Dodd legislation, S. 891, to require that credit card companies either require the same terms of college students they require of everyone else—either

ability to repay a card or a co-signer—or, at least, require proof that the student

has passed a qualified debt education course.

• Pass the broader House proposals, H.R. 1052 and H.R. 1060, introduced by Rep.

LaFalce (D–NY), to rein in unfair credit card practices.

• Reject the credit card company-driven bankruptcy conference report, which hurts

victims of the recession without addressing any of these problems.

The PIRG’s also recommended that campus administrations establish mandatory

debt education programs, free from credit card company interference, and also ban

or strictly regulate credit card marketing on campus. ‘‘Letting the credit card companies run your debt education program is like letting a tobacco company run your

‘‘Stop Teen Smoking’’ campaign,’’ Mierzwinski added.

‘‘We commend Senator Sarbanes for holding this hearing,’’ Mierzwinski concluded.

‘‘We hope to work with him to ensure that college students get a fair deal, not a

raw deal, from unscrupulous credit card companies.’’

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