Citi Cards Credit-ED Program and the Center for Student Credit Card Education Team Up

Advancing its leading commitment to financial literacy among young adults, Citi teams with the Center for Student Credit Card Education to provide vital credit education to high-school students around the country. For the second consecutive year, Citibank, the top credit card issuer for college students according to recent Student Monitor research, and their award-winning Credit-ED program are sponsoring The ABCs of Credit Card Finance, a program that provides financial education to high school students. This year, the program has expanded to include distribution to high schools in all 50 states, to a total of 460,000 high school students nationwide. This is a dramatic increase from last years 105,000 students in only four states: New York, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Oklahoma. The program has been so well received that, government institutions and organizations like state treasury offices, attorney general offices, The Department of Education, Business Education Associations and the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy now facilitate the distribution of CSCCEs primer, The ABCs of Credit Card Finance -- Essential Facts for Students, to the nations high schools. The largest number of requests has come from schools in Ohio (79,600 primers), Washington State (50,000 primers) and West Virginia (37,000 primers). CSCCEs primer includes information on credit card basics such as credit card terms, planning a budget, credit reports, credit scores, responsible credit card behaviors, preventing fraud, and choosing the right credit card for ones needs. CSCCE also provides a training guide and a PowerPoint presentation for teachers to facilitate teaching this important information as part of the school curriculum. An informative parents letter is also provided. The Credit-ED program, available for students, parents and administrators at http://www.Students.UseCreditWisely.com, provides free financial tools to help people of all ages, backgrounds and economic levels develop healthy credit habits. Recently, Citigroup and the Citigroup Foundation announced a 10-year, $200 million global financial education commitment, the formation of a new Office of Financial Education and a global initiative designed to encourage its 300,000 employees around the world to devote time to support financial education and other charitable causes. Under the new initiative, employees may take a day off from work to volunteer for non-profit organizations in their communities.