
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993                   TAG: 9312150039
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JOHNNY SWEATS; YOU LEARN MONE-HANDLING

Max Moore is a detective. Moneytown is his beat. It's also home to Solid State University and student Johnny Sweats, who can't manage money.

Sweats is among the 50 percent of college students who have credit cards. He is a member of the 18-22 age group that bought $28 billion in goods and services in 1992.

The way Moore tells it:

"Johnny Sweats was about 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds of Solid State stud. A Leisure and Rec major, Johnny played on most of the teams and in many of the nightspots. That's right. He was a big guy on campus. With his credit card, he was as loose as the teeth on the Solid State hockey team."

One night while Sweats and his friends were chowing down at the corner pancake house, Sweats pulled out his credit card and picked up the bill for a table of 10. Moore was called in because Sweats got the bill and fainted dead away.

"I told Johnny to keep track of this spending from now on. To keep his receipts, too. And not to spend more than he had in the bank to cover it."

Using the clipped writing style of Dashiell Hammett ("Maltese Falcon"), Citibank MasterCard and Visa has come up with a consumer education project aimed at college students. The company has sent college radio stations and student newspapers at more than 600 universities materials promoting the program, which includes a free booklet to people who call an 800 phone number.

Stations at George Mason University, Liberty University and Longwood College plan to use the promotions, Citibank said. Also, anyone can get a copy of Max Moore's "Money Matters for College Students" by calling (800) 833-9666.

It's worthwhile reading and worth the effort of ordering just to have the glossary of financial terms included, along with names, addresses and phone numbers of the credit reporting companies in case you want to see what your credit looks like. Also good news: Citibank said it does not make any use of names and addresses collected through its education programs.

Are products getting better, or do they just have more bells and whistles?

Consider the double image that shows up when my television is tuned to Channel 13. Apparently it's the result of the new VCR, which has about 40 buttons on its remote. The remote is reading the cable signal and acting like an antenna, meaning it captures the signal twice.

After three VCRs and two electronics retailers, I've learned:

New VCRs aren't as well-insulated as old ones, so the old ones didn't react to being in a geographic pocket that has strange signal reception.

The solution to my double images is to install a switch that will cut off the VCR when it's not being used. The other double imaging going on in the Cox Cable Roanoke subscriber area will have to wait until the company completes installation of new cable.

by CNB