The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 30, 1984, Image 21

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Thursday, August 30, 1984AThe Battalion/Page 7B
Varied consumer rates
call for aware shoppers
United Press International
NEW YORK — Consumers could
be hit with retroactive interest
charges on automobile loans and
credit card purchases if a recently
enacted New York law spreads na
tionwide.
“The new law is important on a
national level because New York is
considered a landmark state in bank
ing deregulation and reform,” said
Marla Kaplan, associate director of
Bankcard Holders of America, a
Washington-based non-profit con
sumer group. “Other states are
watching to see what New York does
in this area.”
The New York law, signed in
early August by Gov. Mario Cuomo,
allows banks to replace fixed finance
charges with a variable index of in
terest rates that can change quarterly
and be applied retroactively for the
quarter.
The charges can be applied to all
consumer loans and credit lines, in
cluding credit card purchases and
automobile loans.
Citibank said it is looking at the
variable rate consumer loans in some
areas, but has not yet decided
whether to offer them. A spokeswo
man indicated if it were offered it
would be optional.
Chase Manhattan said it has no
plans at this time to offer variable
rates on consumer loans or on its
bank cards.
Variable-rate mortgages are a fact
of life. But buying a house is often a
once-in-a-lifetime deal and consum
ers are more likely to be made aware
of potential hikes in their monthly
charges since, if for no other reason,
the lender is anxious to assure that
the home buyer can afford the mort-
gage.
But an automobile also is a major
purchase these days and a two per
centage point hike in payments,
charged retroactively, could put
them right out of reach.
Banks which impose the variable
charges are required to inform bor
rowers of them. But Kaplan said,
“The guy who has just seen the car
of his dreams would say ‘yeah yeah’
and not really listen. We want to
make this purchaser aware enough
before he sees that car that he can
shop for a better deal.”
Consumers use credit cards for
smaller, often impulse, purchases
where they wouldn’t be as likely to
think in terms of additional charges,
but which can add up to a hefty
amount if credit lines are used to the
hilt.
“The prime rate (the base busi
ness loan rate) doesn’t really affect
consumers directly,” Kaplan said.
“But this new law does and it’s going
to make it harder to make intelligent
choices in purchases. There’s really a
big difference between paying 18
percent and 21 percent interest over
a year.”
BHA, which has roughly 100,000
members nationwide, provides edu
cational and informative newsletters,
pamphlets and money management
guides for consumers.
Kaplan said credit card fees and
charges vary widely nationwide,
sometimes between two banks across
the street from each other. “You can
go to a bank in Missouri where they
are not allowed to charge fees for
credit cards but where you might
pay higher interest charges.”
This might not be wise for a per
son who uses a card constantly and
runs a hefty balance.
Hunger task force visits Southwest
United Press International
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Mem
bers of the Physician Task Force on
Hunger in America plan field visits
to New Mexico, Texas and the Na
vajo Reservation next week, it was
announced Tuesday.
Dr. Larry Brown, chairman of the
task force, said the doctors will visit
homes, health clinics, soup kitchens,
churches and schools. The task force
has already compiled information
from New England states and seve
ral southern states.
“Hunger has made a dramatic re
appearance in America,” Brown
said. “Because of this, some of the
most capable doctors in the nation
have undertaken this effort to deter
mine how serious this problem is
and how it’s affecting people’s
health.”
The task force members will ar
rive in Albuquerque next Monday.
The next day, they will divide into
two groups with one visiting various
shelters, schools and other sites in
the city and the other group going to
Gallup, New Mexico, Window Rock,
Arizona, and Navajo communities to
focus on hunger on the reservation.
Both groups will be present for a
public hearing in Albuquerque Tues
day evening, after which the task
force members will fly to Texas for
three days of visits and hearings.
Texas cities that will be visited in
clude El Paso and Houston along
with several communities in the Rio
Grande Valley.
The task force, formed earlier this
year, is based at Harvard University
and funded by the Field Founda
tion.
City may get new independent TV station
United Press International
WICHITA, Kan. — The city’s
first commerical independent tele
vision station in 30 years could begin
broadcasting by the first of the year,
officials said.
The start-up date for KSAS,
which will be broadcast on UHF (ul
tra high frequency) Channel 24, can
be reached if equipment deliveries
and construction go as planned, said
R. Alan Rudy of Houston, president
of Columbia Communications, the
channel’s licensee.
The station is expected to reach
consumers about 50 miles from its
antenna site near Colwich.
Construction of the 1,000-foot
tower to house the 6-ton antenna is
set to begin within a few weeks,
Rudy said.
■Offices, and. studios for the $8.5
million station are expected to be lo
cated in downtown Wichita, Rudy
said. The first-year operating bud
get for the station, which plans to
employ a 50-member staff, is ex
pected to be $3.5 million.
Rudy and Lee Hanna, executive
vice president of Columbia, said they
are negotiating for programming
that would include movies, sports,
news, old network sitcoms, and some
religious shows, during an initial
broadcast day from 6 a.m. to mid
night. Hanna is based in New York.
Wichita’s first independent sta
tion, KEDD, shutdown in 1956 after
operating three years.
/T
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