Introduced bill looks to save students from debt

By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Reporter

State Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, whose district
includes UCLA, has introduced Assembly Bill 521 in effort to keep
students from falling deep into credit card debt.

Though Koretz stayed in Sacramento because of his work on the
energy crisis, his chief of staff, Scott Svonkin, joined consumer
advocates from California Public Interest Research Group and a
handful of UCLA students on the steps of Kerckhoff Hall Thursday to
push for support for the bill.

Svonkin said the bill calls for three changes: it would put a
$1,000 limit on the amount of debt students could incur, create
programs to educate incoming students about credit cards at their
freshmen orientations, and demand that credit card companies stay
off of college and university campuses.

Nick Lazzarini, a first year history student who supports
Koretz’s bill, expressed upset at credit card companies that
market to students “with the sole intent of getting them into
debt.”

“It is ridiculous for them to make offers to students.
They know we don’t have jobs, they know we don’t have
any means of paying back thousands of dollars of debt,” he
said.

CalPIRG consumer advocate Janine Benner said credit card
companies specifically target students, sometimes offering small
incentives such as free T-shirts.

At the event, CalPIRG introduced a report explaining how to
avoid the “credit card trap.”

The report also stated that half of the 460 students who had
signed up for a credit card on a college campus, ““ some
of them at UCLA ““ eventually had to pay a late fee.

Benner voiced support for Koretz’s bill calling it a
“really reasonable measure that will help students get out of
debt.”