Team 6

800 West Campbell Road

Richardson, TX 75080
July 20, 2015

Lee Lundy
VP Operations
Experian
601 Experian Pkwy
Allen, TX 75013
Mr. Lundy,
Experian is well known for its involvement in efforts to strengthen local communities through
education and philanthropic efforts. The Heart of Experian is a strong statement of concern for the
well-being of local communities, and an excellent set of guidelines for corporate responsibility. In
order to to further the Experian objectives of personal development, supporting the future, and
changing lives we request your involvement in a unique credit education project at the University of
Texas at Dallas.
The University of Texas at Dallas is forming a program to enhance the credit knowledge of its
students to ensure a stronger future through credit education. To that end we need Experian to provide
the speakers, materials, and knowledge to educate our student base of the effects of credit on their
future. We also want to provide internship partnerships with Experian to involve our students with the
credit industry, and provide a potential avenue of employment for our students.
Experians involvement in the project can protect the financial futures of over 23,000 enrolled
students at the University of Texas at Dallas. The project will also lay the foundation for future
partnerships and opportunities for the university and Experian.
Please contact us by August 7th at 555-555-5555 or creditworthy@utdallas.edu to discuss the project
and go over requirements and the benefits of the project.
Thank you,
Team 6

Credit Worthy

Angelica | Beatrice | Michael | Malsha

Proposal To: Experian plc.

Organizational Overview/ Contact:
Lee Lundy, VP Operations
Newenham House
Northern Cross
Malahide Road,
Dublin 17
Ireland.
Local Office: 701 Experian Pkwy
Allen, TX
(972) 390-3000
Experian plc is a global business/financial services group that operates in over 40 countries with
17000 employees. The headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland while the operational headquarters located
in Nottingham, UK. Experians operations are divided mainly into four major lines that are Credit
Services, Marketing Services, Decision Analytics and Consumer Services.
Need must Be Addressed:
The lack of financial education/Literacy among college students
Targeted Population: Current UTD students attending Naveen Jindal School of Management
Goals and Objectives:
Enhance the financial literacy of the students attending University of Texas at Dallas that ultimately
help them achieve career and financial goals.

Students Will Learn..

How personal life and society is affected by financial decisions that are made every day
To better manage personal financial means and improve money management skills
To become active in savings plans and investment for future financial stability
Sources Needed:
Instructors, Classroom space, Advertising utilizing UTDs resources, promo items such as pens and
notebooks

Background to the Issue

There is an education crisis at campuses across the United States. Students are unprepared and
undereducated to the impact that credit will have on their future. To prepare the UTD student base for
a future where financial literacy is critical to success we propose to partner with Experian to provide
credit education for the UTD student base.
Our proposal consists of why the project is important, an overview of the project, and the
benefits to Experian. This project will be critical to the success of the student base at UTD. Please
review the materials enclosed and contact us by August 7th to discuss the project.
According to a Student Monitor Survey held by the U.S General Accounting Office, 63% of
all college students had at least one credit card- majority of this number did not fully pay the balance
each month. This situation steals students concentration from their studies, and other academic
related activities because students have to work more hours to pay off the debt they accumulated over
time. Credit is supposed to help student by providing a means to pay for tuition, transportation, food
and housing, but misusing such source can affect your financial aspect while in college as well as
after graduation. To explore the background for lack of financial education, it is important to take a
look at the attitude and behaviors they show towards the financial education.

The Inceptia National Financial Aptitude Analysis instrument. 2013

Need For Credit Education

Importance of Credit History
Why should you monitor your credit history early? Because it will follow you throughout life.
Most people know that your credit history plays a major role in getting a credit card, buying or
renting a home and buying a car. Bad credit can also prevent you from landing that dream job. Many
employers want to see that you can handle your finances, especially if you will be handling finances
for others. So what we plan, with the help of Experian, is to offer the tools needed to manage your
credit early on so that it does not present a roadblock later in life.
Reading the Fine Print
Prior to 2009, many credit card companies would target young adults. An incoming college
freshman may not have the means or time to work and support themselves while in school, due to the
many hours needed to attend class and study. These credit cards offer gifts and free money for
signing up. Spending money they dont have or even have the means to pay back in the future.
Basically giving students free range to rack up unnecessary debt in addition to their school loans. Not
to mention the contract they quickly signed to gain access to this free money. Many adults skim
over the fine print in contracts because the language used is so technical that some may not even
understand the meaning. Yet we expect teenagers to know what the consequences of defaulting on a
loan can do.
The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 put a stop to this.
Now young adults under the age of 21 will not be allowed to apply for credit cards without a
cosigner. And most importantly, these credit card companies would not be able to solicit students on
campus. But we want to do more than that, we want to offer ways to build and monitor good credit
history.
Need to Change
An article in Time titled Todays Young Adults Will Never Pay Off Their Credit Card Debts
stated theres a growing body of evidence suggesting that todays young adults are drowning in
credit-card debt and that many of them will take this debt to their graves. Debt may be inevitable
with the need/want to buy a home, new car and credit cards. However, young adults should be aware
that these short-term benefits to their finances now could greatly harm their future.
Another article in Time titled Young Adults Have Basically No Clue How Credit Cards Work:
Theres a good possibility that these young adults arent irresponsible, though, just misinformed.
BMO Harris Bank recently conducted a survey that found almost four in 10 adults under the age of
35 think carrying a balance improves your credit score (it doesnt). And roughly one out of four say
they dont check their credit score more than once every few years. Perhaps thats because a third of
them think checking your credit score hurts your credit (again, it doesnt). BMO found that 25% of
young adults dont know even know what their credit score is
We want to help young adults know how to check, monitor and grow good credit history. So
5-10 years from now there will not be any overshadowing debt holding them back.

Program Overview
Duration- September 1st, 2015 through December 1st, 2015.
Free Introductory Credit Score Checks
The program will take actions to attract students from all levels (JSOM) to attend classes and
workshops, which are offering free credit score checks for students who expect to attend classes in
fall semester. Ads will be posted in main traffic areas throughout the campus such as the Admissions
office, advising office and visitor center. Performing actual credit checks will take place at student
orientation sessions and the first week of class commencements. The program will also send an
automatic email to students upon their enrollment in courses.
Workshops/ Classes
The program will consist of informative and educational classes focusing on a variety of
topics in financial literacy. Classes for each topic will be held twice a day (Morning and Evening), so
students have more opportunity to attend these classes.

Topics will include:

Financial Terms and Definitions
Budgeting
Importance of Credit (Score)
Investing/ Saving
Planning for Retirement
Instructors for these workshops are to be provided by Experian and UTD faculty members.
Budgeting Help/ Credit Counseling
After students attend the above credit check sessions and workshops, they can begin taking
corrective action if their credit is in negative situations. Students have high tendencies to spend
money beyond what they can afford. Budgeting help classes will be very helpful for those overspenders. Credit counseling is for participants who already have trouble qualifying for loans, such as
a car,student and housing loans or even a credit card.
Workshops and Budgeting/Credit counseling sessions will have a parallel schedule each week.
However, to attend these sessions, students do not need to attend offered credit check sessions or
workshops.

Benefits to Experian
Our project aligns perfectly with Experians philanthropic endeavors and the heart of
Experian. Experian has three objectives that are a part of the heart of Experian that work perfectly
with our project.

We The People.
Experian has a stated objective to develop employees personally and professionally by
developing a variety of activities to develop local communities. Our project will involve Experian
with the development of the local community by providing a large forum for credit education to a
group with a lack of knowledge of credit services. UTD has a 20,000 strong student base who can
provide a large opportunity for employee growth by having them lead seminars, activities and
trainings.
Supporting the Future.
Experian has a stated objective to collaborate with local schools to provide student awards,
computer labs, educational materials, business support and volunteer opportunities. A partnership
with UTD can provide training and education in the credit industry and build a strong base of credit
knowledge strong students who have a working knowledge of credit. These students are future
leaders of industry and will have a strong relationship with Experian and be able to expand future
partnerships thanks to their preexisting partnership with Experian employees and leaders.
These students may also be involved with local Experian internships and training
opportunities to provide a well-educated local talent base for Experian to recruit from. By partnering
with UTD there will be a preexisting relationship with Experian making it far more likely to bring in
high quality talent to the Experian organization that will have the knowledge needed to excel at
Experian.
Changing Lives, Improving Futures.
Experian has a lofty goal to not just change lives but ensure a better future for its local
communities. Credit is a very large factor in the future life quality of UTD students. Partnering with
Experian will provide the education and credit savvy that will lead to better jobs and a better financial
future for college graduates.
Experian will meet three of its core value objectives by assisting UTD in providing credit
education and partnering to mentor our students to a better future. In addition Experian will be able to
deduct all expenses related to seminars, projects and materials used to educate our UTD student base.
By partnering with UTD, both Experian and UTD will have a stronger financial future.
Other benefits include extended subscriptions for UTD students where Experian can offer
premium credit score checks for an additional fee. Also Experian can offer internships to students
who complete this program so that Experian can have the potential of hiring knowledgeable
professionals in this field.

Benefits For Students

Experian gives the American people the opportunity to take charge of their lives and their
future. It provides people with an opportunity to own their own tomorrow by making sure they are
aware of anything that might prevent them from owning their dream house, or a car or any other asset
that someone might have dreamt of. It is for this reason that the students at UTD welcomes an
opportunity to the exposure of such future security for their future.

As students of UT Dallas, we believe in the power of knowledge. We strongly believe that

there is no better place to get knowledge in securing our future that Experian. We believe in Experian
because they are one of Americas best, and are a global company with clients in 40 countries, with a
vast amount of experience in providing data and much needed information in managing credit risk
and many other aspects of life. They were also named as one of the worlds innovative company
by Forbes in 2014. We believe the students can benefit in the following areas:
Preventing Fraud
Experian can teach the students how to protect themselves from fraud which can harm their
credit. A bad credit makes it very hard to acquire assets. Students can benefit immensely by knowing
that there are ways they can stop this and ways in which they can monitor and protect themselves
from falling victim to fraud.
Identity theft
We believe that Experian can arm students with ways and ideas of always staying ahead of
identity thieves. Being robbed of ones identity is as good as being robbed of ones soul. The
students can learn how to take care of themselves in everything they do to avoid being victims of
such.
Credit Worthy
It is amazing how many people in this country dont know their credit numbers or even
understand why they need them. We believe that having a good credit score means you are a person
whos in charge of their life. Experian can teach the students the importance of building and maintain
a good credit score.
Getting a Job/Apartment/House
Experian can also teach students especially when it comes to getting a good job as a credit
score might be used by potential employers as part of the selection process.
(www.experian.com/credit). A credit score is also used when you want to rent or buy a place to stay.
We think it is especially important for students to master financial literacy from Experian because
when most students graduate, they will most likely have student loans of some kind. In fact,
according to the Huffingpost, the average class of 2014 graduated with student loans averaging at
$34,000. Because we know that even student loans can hurt your credit score, and can in turn
diminish your credit worthiness, we feel that students can really lean from Experian on the
importance of managing our debt so that we dont restrict ourselves in acquiring assets in the future.

Conclusion
Credit education is critical to the future well-being of University students, and this project will
allow Experian to impact the lives of a whole new generation of business leaders. Experian will also
meet its goals of community involvement, supporting the future and enriching lives. Our plan is
simple: educate, develop, and provide the tools to expand financial literacy at UTD. To accomplish
this we need your help.
We implore Experian to partner with UTD to create a program for credit education and enrich
the financial lives of its students. Please contact us before August 7th at 555-555-5555 to make
arrangements to begin the process.

Works Cited
Trombitas, Kate. "College Students are Put to the Test: The Attitude, Behaviors and Knowledge
Levels of Financial Education." www.inceptia.org. National Student Loan Program (NSLP), Jan.
2013. Web. 13 July 2015.
White, Martha C. "Today's Young Adults Will Never Pay Off Their Credit Card Debts." Time Jan.
2013. Web. 17 July 2015.
White, M. C. (2014, September 11). Young Adults Have Basically No Clue How Credit Card
Work.Time.
Weise, K. (2012, August 9). In Search of High-Definition Credit Scores [Electronic version].
Bloomberg Business Week.
Jones, Joyce E. (2005). College Students' Knowledge and Use of Credit. Journal of Financial
Counseling & Planning, 16(2), 9-17.
Community Involvement Experian. Experian, 25 February 2015. Web. 20 June 2015.