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Illinois has joined such states as Texas, California, New York and Oklahoma in passing laws restricting or regulating credit card marketing on college and university campuses.
Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday signed into law the Credit Card Marketing Act, which bans private and public colleges in the state from providing student names and contact information to credit card issuers. A similar law went into effect in Connecticut last month.
The Illinois law bans issuers marketing on campuses from offering students gifts, such as T-shirts and food, in exchange for filling out credit card applications. Furthermore, contracts between schools and issuers will be open for public viewing, and schools that allow card marketing to undergraduates must offer consumer-finance classes to freshmen.
"We want to make sure that when credit card vendors come onto campus they operate in a fair way and they don't abuse their customers," Quinn said during a news conference. The law also makes sure issuers "don't get special access to information from the college or university they really don't have any right to," he said. The law takes effect Jan. 1.
College students last year set records for the number of cards each carries and in the balances on their cards, according to a Sallie Mae study released earlier this year. College seniors carried an average credit card debt of $4,100 compared with $2,900 in 2004, while freshmen had average debt of $939, nearly triple their previous $373 average, according to the study.
