Linda Cullinan is more than pleased to see her company emblazoning piles of its credit cards with big, bright, crimson-and-blue Jayhawks.

“We’re very proud,” said Cullinan, an Intrust Bank vice president and marketing manager for its credit-, check- and gift-card operations. “And it’s going very well. The bank would not have entered into such a relationship if we didn’t think it was a great fit for the Midwest, for the values and principles that the bank holds, and the KU alumni – and, by proxy – the KU, university environment.

“It’s very well received, it’s very popular and certainly – around times like this when Big Jay is marching to the Final Four – it’s very exciting.”

But such relationships – even long-standing partnerships, such as that formed by Intrust with the Alumni Association in 1987 – are facing criticism from lawmakers, consumer advocates and others who fear that college students and others connected to the schools are falling prey to credit businesses that rely on hooking new customers and letting them run with the line for years, never to cut loose.

“Campus credit-card marketing is simply out of control,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which has been critical of such marketing efforts. “At tables on and off campus, on your phone and in your mail, there’s a credit card company making a pitch to get into your wallet, even if you cannot afford to pay the bill.”

Jill Docking, a KU graduate and member of the Kansas Board of Regents, sees both sides of the issue. But she also understands reality.

Lesson one: Learn

Banks and other issuers of credit cards aren’t about to stop looking for new customers, she said, and college students and others show no signs of shying away from financial products seen as meeting their needs.

The only real option, she said – and this is her personal view, not necessarily as a member of the regents – is that college students simply need to be educated in the real-world benefits, drawbacks and consequences of using credit.

“People say there shouldn’t be any credit cards on campus. That’s a little bit naive,” said Docking, who works as a vice president for investments at Wachovia in Wichita, and is president of the Financial Fitness Foundation, a nonprofit organization she founded to promote financial literacy in the state. “They’re getting applications in the mail. They’re getting them in high school.

“What we ought to be thinking about, as a state, is teaching kids the ramifications of using a credit card, and making them understand that if they do, then they’ll know how to use it in a responsible way.”

Docking hopes to take a similar message to Washington later this month, when she is scheduled to testify about financial literacy in America before the House Financial Services Committee. Instead of looking at kids as victims, she said, officials need to help young people help themselves by empowering them with information.

“You will never stop companies from bringing (credit-card offers) to the kids, unless you give up capitalism in the United States of America,” Docking said. “And I don’t think you can get that accomplished.”

Lower lines

Cullinan said that Intrust conducts its affinity-card program with the highest of standards. Students who sign on for Jayhawk-emblazoned credit cards, for example, are granted credit lines that are “considerably lower” than the general population.

“We take very seriously our lending to students, and believe it’s really very much an education process,” she said, noting that monthly statements for such accounts include tips for budgeting, or how an item purchased on sale today might not be such a value if it’s still being paid off 10 months later. “We want them to be successful credit card customers. That means starting them out on lower lines, so they can’t let that spending get away from them.”

In a study conducted for the Public Interest Research Group, 66 percent of college students reported that they had at least one credit card.

For students paying their credit bills without help from home, just under half reported carrying balances from month to month.

Seniors responsible for their own credit cards carried $2,623 in debt, compared with $1,301 for freshmen, according to the study.

Docking said those numbers actually were encouraging, considering the relative lack of financial education that students receive. That’s why programs, such as KU’s new financial literacy course – one offered through the School of Business – offer so much promise.

Students are supposed to enter the “real world” equipped with knowledge to be successful, she said. Understanding how to manage one’s financial affairs – from bank accounts to life insurance to retirement savings and, yes, credit cards – is essential for anyone to succeed.

Financial training

Teaching students while they’re still on campus is an optimal situation, she said, because so many can be reached at once and while many still have their minds open to worthwhile advice.

“If they’re financially illiterate, as most parents seem to be, then we need to train them to understand it,” Docking said.

Todd Cohen, a KU spokesman, said that the financial literacy course was among many changes over the years that are intended to help students succeed, both in and out of the classroom.

During new student orientation, participants are informed about the perils of debt and advised about counseling services available for those who may end up dealing with financial struggles.

Also, credit companies no longer can market directly to students during the first three weeks of a semester, and booths set up on campus must be sponsored in partnership with a student organization, Cohen said.

Credit companies also are prohibited from placing advertisements or applications in bags at the student bookstores.

“You won’t get those solicitations when you buy your books,” Cohen said.

Intrust, which has a contract to use the Jayhawk on its cards through a contract with the KU Alumni Association, hopes to continue the relationship for the long term.

And officials with the alumni association are pleased with the relationship, noting that the vast majority of such cards are carried by alumni, friends and supporters of the university.

A very small percentage find their way into the wallets of present KU students, said Jennifer Sanner, the association’s senior vice president for communications. And those that do have plenty of support.

“They’re very scrupulous about how they approach students,” Sanner said.

Cullinan – whose bank’s affinity programs also include cards for Kansas State, Emporia State, Wichita State and Washburn universities – said Intrust would continue to do all it could to help students grow into solid financial citizens.

“We very much embrace the educational aspect of students having cards,” she said. “We are looking for long-term relationships. The smarter the consumers are about their products, the happier they’ll be and remain long-term customers.”