She wanted the fish T-shirt.

To get it, finance sophomore Amanda Vaught was applying for a Citibank credit card.

Vaught, who already has a Citibank Visa, is just one of the 35,000 UA students being targeted by credit card companies.

Tables in the Student Union and on the Mall tease the potential credit card applicants with rock 'n' roll music and free gifts.

Some of the cards being offered on campus include Discover, Mobil, AT&T Mastercard and Citibank credit card. Bright T-shirts, water bottles and slinkies attract students to spend about 10 minutes to apply.

"Students have come to expect that a premium would be offered (to them in exchange for their application)," says Jay Muchnick from Campus Dimensions and College Credit Card Corporation, a marketing company.

The Catering and Sales Banquet Sales office, in Student Union Room 252, rents out space for $150 a day to companies wanting to solicit.

Responsibility, on the office's part, ends after the company scheduling is completed. The office has nothing to do with what is being promoted, a catering office specialist says.

In the past, king-sized candy bars coaxed students to credit card tables.

That practice, which has since stopped in the Union, violates the 1987 Student Union policy.

According to the policy, "All food and beverage sales on campus, including vending machines and sports concessions, are the responsibility of the Student Union. Groups or persons wishing to dispense food on campus must obtain permission from the Student U nion."

Vendors are not allowed to come in the Student Union and give away products that the Student Union and ASUA bookstore already provide, Mike Low, Student Union assistant director, says.

Credit card solicitors receive commission for the number of applications they bring in.

One marketing firm will mail credit card applications to campus clubs. If clubs sent back 200 or more completed applications they receive $5 for each, says Donna Ferry, program manager for On Campus Marketing.

This provides clubs on campus with a good fund-raising event, she adds.

Students applying need to realize that the credit card companies will hold them accountable for the charges that accumulate, says Rebecca Kososki, an independent contractor running a table.

Ron Trithart, an educator for Consumer Credit Counseling Service, a financial agency offering free, confidential and nonjudgmental advice, says that the majority of students he talks to are in debt because of credit cards.

After all, he says, credit cards are the "easiest, most accessible form of credit for students" to obtain.

It is advantageous for students to get credit cards at the university, because qualifications are relaxed, Muchnick says. The applications that Kososki offers list grants, scholarships and allowances as other sources of acceptable income for those student s who do not have full-time employment.

The United States has about one billion credit cards in circulation, Trithart says. Each credit card holder has an average of four cards, he says.

The balance most people keep on their cards, Trithart says, is about $3,900.

Seventy percent of card holders do not pay their balances in full every month, Trithart says.

As a result of maintaining a balance, a person faces an additional cost of about 18.25 percent added to purchases. This translates into $91 in one year on a $500 balance.

Four out of five UA students do not know what percentage rate is being added to their balances every month.

Obtaining a credit card allows people to begin a credit history. By doing so, according to columnist Jane Bryant Quinn, people "are branded by a 'credit score.'"

The credit score "distills, in one number, everything credit bureaus know about your debts: things like how many years you've had credit cards, how much credit you use and how many times you've paid bills late or not at all," she says.

People who look at the scores are "employing them to pass judgment on our insurability, our fitness for a mortgage loan, even our moral nature," Quinn says.

Numerous ramifications begin affecting people once they get a hold of plastic cash.

The "key is being responsible," Kososki says.

Many credit card companies suggest setting a personal credit limit lower than the card limit, paying more than the minimum payment and paying on time.

People's ability to handle debt is decreasing, Trithart says.

That fact appears to have a small effect on the UA campus.

Industrial engineering senior, Mathilda Hadikusume, who has a Citibank card, was applying for a Discover card because it has no annual fee.

And Amanda Vaught - she got her T-shirt.

How do you use your credit cards?
	"(To buy) clothes and books - I don't use them very often." - Michelle Allen molecular biology and women's studies senior two credit card holder
	"(I use them) when I don't have cash with me, or I'm out of checks." - Lisa Thompson psychology junior two credit card holder
	"For things I can't get with cash, like airline tickets and things ordered over the phone." - Brian King business freshman two credit card holder
	"(To buy) materialistic stuff...like clothes, shoes and airline tickets." - Joe Romo finance freshman one credit card holder
	"(To buy) stuff I really don't need; for food and to go out to dinner." - Porsha Martinez pre-exercise and sport sciences freshman two credit card holder
	"(I buy) gas and whatever I need with credit cards." - German Andrade nursing freshman nine credit card holder