NAACP Supports Bill To Ban Credit Card Solicitors At Colleges

The Chattanooga chapter of the NAACP is speaking out against credit card companies that try to get students hooked into high-interest cards at a time when money is very tight.

Many students are already swimming in a sea of debt with student loans. Now the NAACP is supporting a proposed Tennessee law that would forbid companies from making their credit card sales pitches on college campuses.

The measure is stalled in a state senate committee as of Wednesday afternoon so it's future remains uncertain. But we uncovered another way credit card companies are hooking students.

UTC junior Ashley Williams said "it's so overwhelming because it preys on your desires of the moment."

Williams is among the few students who have the willpower to resist the pitch for a credit card. But most fall prey to the plastic, as a study by student loan lender Nellie Mae shows 76% of undergraduates have a credit card and carry ballooning balances month-to-month.

Valoria Armstrong, president of the Chattanooga chapter of the NAACP said "we want to be in a place where our students come to school to be in an environment of learning, not in an environment where they are incurring debt."

Banning credit solicitors from campuses is getting support from students like Jonathan Bond, who's about to graduate.

"I think it is a good idea because students usually have to take out student loans and have enough debt as it is," Bond said.

UTC Vice Chancellor Chuck Cantrell said "we have long prohibited credit card solicitation on campus."

While UTC is ahead of the game in terms of prohibiting solicitors, they understand most students give in to credit card pitches off campus.

"We do offer financial counseling and credit card counseling through our counseling center and encourage students to participate in that," Cantrell explained.

While actual credit card solicitation is not allowed on UTC's campus credit card solicitors are putting up signs advertising "free pizza" if they come to the University Pizza and Deli on Vine Street just off campus and bring a student ID.

After all, what college student wouldn't at least check out the deal for free pizza?

"It is a really underhanded way to get somebody hooked into a raw deal. It goes on just off campus within walking distance from the dorms, and walking distance from book sellers," Williams said.

In the state senate committee the proposed law is stalled because three senators are for it, three against and another three want to pass on their votes

State Senator Andy Berke is one of them supporting the measure. It has to be signed by Governor Phil Bredesen, who today in Chattanooga said he doesn't favor the bill because it only covers state college campuses.