Recognizing that entering college students are the primary market for new credit card holders, credit card companies swoop down every fall on American college campuses looking for freshmen or “fresh meat.” In a “carnival atmosphere” of blaring music and free food, the credit card companies set up tables spread with glossy promotional brochures and loaded with free t-shirts, frisbees, and other gifts to lure students into applying for credit cards. Company representatives do not talk about the interest rates or fees associated with the cards. Presumably, that information is contained in the brochures. Instead, the credit card vendors emphasize the free items and an easy way to buy clothes and books or pay for spring break vacations. Credit card companies have been accused of using excessive marketing tactics and using student organizations as on-campus solicitors to pressure other students into signing up for credit cards.
College students are offered credit at unprecedented levels. Entering college students are bombarded with an average of eight credit card offers during their first week of college. Nearly half of all students receive credit card applications on a daily or weekly basis, and most receive applications at least a few times per month. The majority of students obtain their first credit card in college, and by graduation, over half have multiple cards.
This report summarizes the results of Public Citizen’s eight-month examination of the use of binding mandatory arbitration by the credit card industry. Due to widespread anecdotal evidence of abuse, we articularly focused on credit card giant MBNA’s reliance on one arbitration company, the National Arbitration Forum (NAF). This report shows that binding mandatory arbitration is a rigged game in which justice is dealt from a deck stacked against consumers.
Consumers are railroaded into arbitration even if their identity was stolen or they never agreed to take disputes to arbitration. In several cases we uncovered, NAF, which routinely handles MBNA’s “collection” arbitrations, ignored repeated consumer protests that identity theft was the source of the alleged debt.
The herbal related market includes herbs used as food or food additives, cosmetic ingredients, and herbal medicines. The current estimates for this market ranges between USD 40-100 billion with an average annual growth rate of 15 to 20% (Merican 2003 and Exim Bank 2003). Malaysians have consumed RM 2 billion worth of herbal products in 1997, which was double the amount spent per person as compared to consumers in the US (Merican 2003) These statistics show the significance of this industry.
Dr. Paul Zane Pilzer (2001), in his book entitled ‘The Next Trillion’ values the US healthcare industry to be above 1 trillion dollars for both pharmaceutical and food based products each. He predicts that the spending will shift fromillness oriented products, such as pharmaceuticals, to wellness promoting products, such as herbs and nutraceuticals. Table 1 lists out several common forms of herbal related products and their commonly accepted definitions.
