Contest
raises credit awareness
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
If
you are like most college students then
chances are you have a credit card or two
as well as debt to go along with it. Many
college students incur numerous expenses
and have very little money to pay for them
during their college years. Whether it is
an emergency to fix a car or a spur of the
moment, the credit card is always handy
when needed. Of course, along with the spending
comes mounting credit card bills and debt.
However,
there are several ways to get out of debt
including less spending and paying a higher
monthly premium on the balance of each card.
But students looking for other ways to get
rid of debt need to look no further. Five
Cal State Long Beach public relations students
are putting on an ElimiDebt week contest
this week as part of an annual Bateman Case
Study Competition.
The
five students, Anna Backfisch, Nicole Lavaud,
Cassandra Pavlich, Megan Rodrigues and Miranda
Rubin were chosen to represent CSULB and
compete nationally against other universities
in the Bateman competition.
This
competition was created in 1973 by the Public
Relations Society of America to exercise
members' analytical skills and judgment
required for problem solving in the public
relations filed.
"It's
like an internship," Lavaud said. "We
are putting on the campaign on a lower seat
instead of on a national level."
Each
year the society, along with the Public
Relations Student Society of America, puts
on this national competition for all the
schools in PRSSA to participate. There is
anywhere from 50 to 100 schools that participate
in the competition and this year the theme
is credit literacy.
The
CSULB Bateman Team is putting together an
ElimiDebt week to help students learn about
credit: how to use it, keep it, protect
it and get out of debt.
"The
average person is in debt," Lavaud
said. "A lot of people use credit wherever
they go and they don't realize they'll be
in debt for years to come."
The
CSULB team surveyed almost 200 students
and found that 93 percent of them understand
credit. Seventy-nine percent own a credit
card. Forty-one percent think you must have
income to get a credit card. Thirty-four
percent think making the minimum payment
on a credit card is the best way to build
credit and 95 percent understand that cell
phone bills and other bills affect your
credit.
The
Elimidebt week begins today with a game
at The Nugget and ends Saturday night at
the Pike Bar in Downtown Long Beach. The
game at The Nugget will be a remake of the
old MTV show "Singled Out" where
contestants will be eliminated based on
what they don't know about credit. Anyone
is allowed to participate in the events
and the winner will get a cash prize of
$100. Other participants will receive prizes
such as gift certificates. Elmidebt will
also be at homecoming this Saturday for
those that don't get to participate at The
Nugget.
Lavaud
and the rest of the women of the Bateman
team are hoping that students will better
understand how to use credit and avoid debt
from their Elimidebt campaign.
"Credit
is important to have, you need it to buy
a house or a car," Lavaud said. "So
we're saying 'establish it and guard it.'
Credit is good, but debt is bad. We hope
that they're smarter on what credit is and
learn to be more responsible."
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