The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has recently acquired a grant from the Ford Foundation that will help to fund a campaign to fight back against credit card companies which they claim are scrupulous in their marketing activities aimed at college students. With the help of the grant, U.S. PIRG will be setting up tables next to the credit card company marketing booths on-campus which they claim aggressively targets college students to apply for their credit card products.
With the grant money the organization has received, the U.S. PIRG is creating a coalition that will launch a counter-attack targeting these credit card company marketers. The slogan for the movement plays off of the VISA name: “FEESA. Free Gifts Now. Huge Fees Later.”
The new campaign will also have its own website, which can be found at TruthAboutCredit.org. Through the campaign, the group hopes to persuade colleges to ban the solicitation of gifts to college students as a part of their marketing campaigns. In addition, the group wants to get colleges to prohibit student groups, campus employees, and campus departments from receiving financial support or any other goods or services from banks issuing credit cards in exchange for allowing aggressive marketing to students. Finally, the organization is pressuring colleges to ban the sale of student names to credit card companies.
According to Gwen Dungy of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the campaign is not meant to ban students from accessing credit cards. Rather, it is an attempt to ensure primarily that students are better informed consumers who can make better decisions, but it’s also hopeful that the campaign will help to alter the credit card solicitation policies of on-campus card marketers.
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