Page 8
THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 21. 1977
Own credit important to women
United Pi •ess International
\KW YORK — A modc'l who earns over
$20.OOO a year and has always paid her own hills is
divorced and finds she can t use her department
store charge accounts.
A widow who has never worked outside the
home has trouble obtaining credit to buy a new
car.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in
June changed all that and Ms. Sandra Powers,
consumer affairs adviser for Master ('barge,
spends her time "trying to make women aware of
the implications of the new credit standards and
how to use them to their advantage.”
"Lhidcr the new act. creditors are, ifTequested.
required to carry identical credit ratings for hus
band and wife. Ms. Powers suggests wives In
sure this separate credit history is established.
"I don t want to sound like a erepehanger, but
statistically, either through divorce or w idow hood,
there’s a good chance she’ll need it.
Ms. Pow ers said a working w ife can carry credit
under her maiden name or married name and it is
even possible for a non-working wife to establish a
separate line of credit — by showing that she signs
some or all of the family checks.
“In many families, the wife pays the bills, but in
the past she had no credit history of her own,” Ms.
Powers said in an interview.
Since women are relatively new to the business
world, she said, they — and some lenders — have
yet to realize their economic clout. “About 38 mil
lion women are now employed outside the home
— a significant consumer bloc if it is used prop
erly.
“And w'omen want to know,” she said. "I re
cently appeared on a radio call-in talk show in
Houston, Texas. The switchboard was lit up for
four hours with calls from women wanting to talk
about credit.
Ms. Powers said women tend to be unassertive
about credit matters.
“Don’t be afraid to go to a credit officer at your
bank and ask anything. If you don’t get a good
response, find another officer, or even another
bank,” she advised.
Generally, she said, banks use three criteria in
their credit judgements: income, stability and
credit history. These differ from bank to bank.
“For instance,” she said, “one bank may have a
flat rule of one year on the job, while another may
give credit if you’ve been on the job for six
months, but have a good credit history. If you’re
turned dow n at one bank because of a particular
bank policy — and they must tell you w hy — don’t
hesitate to try another.”
What if one has no credit line and wants to open
one?
"Open a charge account at a department store.
It’s generally easier than obtaining a bank loan or a
major credit card,” said Ms. Powers.
Has Ms. Powers ever been discriminated
against in obtaining credit?
“No. I’m divorced but I’ve always maintained
credit in my own name. I feel strongly about the
new credit act and its advantages to women.”
House passes reform bill
for miner’s disease benefit!
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The vet
eran congressman stood wheez
ing in front of his House col
leagues.
Rep. Daniel J. Flood, a color
ful Democrat from Pennsyl
vania’s hard coal region, was not
ill. He just wanted to give the
congressmen a sense of what it is
like to have black lung disease.
With several dozen coal min
ers and their families looking on
from the public galleries, the
House Monday passed reforms
to a nine-year-old law that gives
government benefits to miners
with the disease. The vote was
283-100.
Before voting, however, the
House bowed to the wishes of
the Carter administration and
eliminated several of the most
controversial provisions of the
measure, including one that
would have awarded automatic
benefits to veteran miners.
As passed, the- bill is similar to
one ready for adoption in the Se
nate. That chamber considered
its own version earlier but with
held final passage
House acted.
Black lung is the coihium
name for coal miner’s pneuiniKii
niosis, a lung disease caused lit
inhalation of coal dust.
The automatic entitlemenl
provision would have awat
benefits to all minors with 30m
more years employment in un
derground mines before July,
1973, whether or not they wire
shown to have the disease. For
anthracite hard coal miners only
25 years of service would br
been required.
01
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Vietnam refugees arrive
in San Francisco Tuesday
United Press International
SAN FRANCISCO — More- than
100 Vietnamese refugees, many of
them “boat people,” arrived by jet
liner Tuesday. They are the first of
15,000 exiles fleeing Communist
countries in Southeast Asia who will
be admitted to the United States
under a special program.
The 113 refugees received an
emotional greeting from relatives,
sponsors and well-wishers as they
stepped off the Pan American Air
ways jetliner Plymouth Rock.”
A spokeswoman for the coordinat
ing group, the Intergovernmental
Committee for European Migra
tion, said two more planes carrying
a total of about 100 additional ref
ugees would land Wednesday in Los
Angeles and New York City.
Many of the refugees who arrived
aboard the plane from Bangkok,
Thailand, escaped from Vietnam on
boats, risking capture, .shipwreck
and death.
around.”
Congress recently approved legis
lation allowing the refugees to enter
the United States. The cities to
which the refugees will go are Los
Angeles, Houston, Peoria, Ill., New
Orleans, San Diego, Calif., Beau
mont, Tex., Fort Worth, Hopkins,
Minn., Wichita, Kan., and K®
City, Mo.
Also Milwaukee, Sun Fran®
Green Bay, Wis., Phoenix, Jn!
Glendale*, Calif., Salt Laid'(I
Chicago, Austin. Tex., Jack
Mich.. Lynnwood, Wash,,!
Evansville*, Incl.
EPA plan to revise
mileage calculation
"There are harrowing tales of es
caping by boats w ith babies and old
people and floating around for two
weeks, passing and waving at ships
that wouldn’t stop because they
didn’t want to get involved,” said
spokesw'oman Ruth Tropin.
“I’m sure people capsized and
drowned. These w'eren’t people
who necessarily knew how to handle
boats. It was their only way to get
out.
"One of the- boats are picked up
by an Israeli ship and several ports
would not allow them to land,” she
said. “The people were taken to Is
rael. Maybe they w'on’t stay there
forever, but it’s better than floating
United Press International
W ASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency (EP.V
plans to revise its miles per gallon calculations next year so tlie aver
age driver can hope to attain the- same mileage as the winnini'N
auto.
This year the Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel retained its crown as tin 1
No. 1 economy subcompact, but EPA acknow ledged that few drjvcni
could mutch the average 45 miles per gallon it acb/em) under cut'
rent criteria.
EPA Administrator Douglas Costle said he plans changes so tdi
will more accurately relleet the* mileage consumers experience and
avoid the* anger and disappointment some owners feel when theirws
fail to approximate the hoped for performance.
In the* annual rankings of new models released Monday, twootb
diesel-powered 1978 models — a Peugeot and the- new Oldsmob!
diesel — also emerged as the- most fuel efficient ears in their classes.
Several big ears — a Cadillac El Dorado, a Cadillac limousine,a
Dodge Monaco and a Plymouth Fury — emerged with the worst
ratings, averaging II m.p.g. * S
Costle also suggested consumers should use* EPA mileage figures
not as a promise of performance*, but as a guide for comparison shop
ping, indicating, for instance*, that one ear might use* 20 per cent more
fuel than another. j
EPA test results covered 91 per cent of the- ears expected to he sop
during the new model year, but did not include one of last years
m.p.g. champions, the Honda, w hich has not yet submitted test data,
The* Rabbit Diesel, which also won last years preliminarymileajf 1
list but was not widely sold in this country, got 40 m.p.g. indjy
driving and 53 on the road. The ear tested was a lour cylinder, til-
cubic inch engine with manual transmission and fuel injection.
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