Chris Dodd: “As I touched on briefly before, this amendment seeks to protect the most vulnerable of our nation's consumers--persons…”

“As I touched on briefly before, this amendment seeks to protect the most vulnerable of our nation's consumers--persons under the age of 21. According to Dr. Robert Manning, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, one of the fastest growing groups of bankruptcy filers are people under the age of 25. In fact, the number of bankruptcies among those under the age of 25 is more than 6 times that of only 5 years ago, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. One of the most troubling developments in the hotly contested battle of credit card issuers to sign up new customers has been the aggressive way in which they target people under the age of 21. Solicitations to this group have become more intense for a variety of reasons which I have mentioned already. Obviously, we know about consumer loyalties. It is also an age group in which brand loyalty can be established. However, some credit card issuers have gone too far. Again, I am not opposed to people under the age of 21 having credit cards. Credit cards, are a great asset to a lot of people. I am not opposed to them, but they must be issued and used responsibly.”