Entrepreneur's Sites Offer Students Tips on Good Credit -- and Credit Cards
By SCOTT CARLSON
From the issue dated July 28, 2000
Over the past 10 years, Larry Chiang has made millions from a business that markets credit cards to college students. So it's in his interest to help those students manage their plastic wisely and avoid the quagmire of credit-card debt.
Now, as more and more student spending moves online, he has followed, creating a suite of World Wide Web sites for students that offer credit counselors, financial calculators, and tips on how to save money and stay out of debt -- along with opportunities to get credit cards through his company.
While some people would prefer that advice on managing credit come from disinterested sources, the suggestions that Mr. Chiang's sites offer could be helpful to students, many of whom would have trouble finding similar information anywhere else.
And such activity is increasingly typical of the Web, where fewer and fewer sites offer information without also incorporating some element of marketing. But some of those who work in nonprofit financial counseling see the combination of credit advice and commercialism as a conflict of interest.
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