As I was daydreaming my way down East 13th Avenue earlier this week, my thinking was interrupted by a well-dressed young man handing out fliers. I accepted one of the yellow handbills. It featured a Subway logo and the following beseechment:
“STUDENTS
FREE 6-INCH SUB!
13TH AND HILYARD
Participate in a 2 minute student promotion
Student ID required”
A few hours later, when my stomach began to grumble, I walked to the Subway to get my free sandwich. Inside the door to the right sat a professionally dressed man. The table at which he sat bore a banner with a prominent logo: Citi.
Recognizing the logo of the credit card company, I turned and walked out the door, deciding a six-inch sub wasn’t worth the credit card leeches sucking me dry of personal information and sending piles of junk mail for months to come.
Credit card companies make a special point of targeting college students, who have loose spending habits and a lifetime of earnings ahead of them — possessors of a bachelor’s degree can expect to earn an average of $2.1 million over the course their working lives, according to the Census Bureau.
The companies’ efforts have been highly successful. Three-quarters of 18- to 24-year-olds carry credit card debt from month to month, Knight Ridder reported. Incredibly, people in that age group spent nearly
30 percent of their 2001 earnings
paying off debt.
Credit card debt tremendously impacts students, who often have college loan debt as well. This debt pushes back the achievement of the American dream for many young people by delaying when they can buy houses and cars.
On top of that, credit cards push up prices for consumers. Credit card companies charge retailers every time a customer uses a card to make a purchase, and retailers pass on the increased cost to their customers.
Debit cards provide nearly all the benefits of credit cards without the usurious debt that piles on month after month. The only thing credit cards are good for, really, is spending money you don’t have. And that’s a bad thing.
The University has policies that regulate what credit card companies can do on campus. To reserve space on campus, they must go through the Scheduling and Event Services office. That department makes them pay for space — $400 a day for a
10-by-10-foot spot at the intersection of East 13th Avenue and University Street or $200 to $300 for space in the EMU (the department charges nonprofit and information-only groups less money).
The University also forbids credit card companies from copying or photographing student IDs in an effort to protect students’ privacy, EMU Director Dusty Miller said. He added that credit card solicitation on campus is “a huge issue.”
“Honestly, it’s a concern, and I think that’s why we have established some safeguards that a vendor must sign to come on campus,” he said.
However, what Citi has done is really quite clever. By standing on campus and handing out fliers that direct students to an off-campus location, the company doesn’t have to pay the EMU. Then, when students go off-campus to Subway as the flier directs, all the little niceties and protections the University provides fall by the wayside.
It occurred to me that I might want to speak about this with our friendly local Citi representative. So I wandered back to Subway.
The friendly local Citi representative — his actual relationship to Citigroup, the world’s largest financial services company according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, isn’t clear — was inside the sub shop talking on his cell phone. He hung up.
“You want a free sub?” he said, pointing to the table with a stack of credit card applications.
I identified myself as a journalist, and he clammed up faster than a bowl of Mo’s chowder.
“I’m not really allowed to discuss what I do,” he said. “I could lose
my job.”
When my eyes wandered down to his photo ID tag, he stuffed it into his shirt faster than I would have presumed possible. But if you want to talk to him about why he’s participating in a scam to get students hooked on credit cards — or if you want to sign up for a Citi card and a free sub — he, or someone just like him, will be at the Subway on 13th and Hilyard today from noon to 7 p.m.
[email protected]
No tact in the Citi
Daily Emerald
April 21, 2005
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