European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 3, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes wednesday september 3, 1980 continued from Page in count far 65 percent of All App sales an rates spokesman said. The implementation of App at Hunt a tors , May 23 was the final step in a phase in of the program at Ibex changes an cafes spokesman said. The credit plan is now available la Exchange customer in Germany. Holland Belgium Turkey Spain Italy Greece and Hie . The most common criticism or App voiced by financial Counselor in Europe involve insufficient credit Check proce dures by cafes sgt Chuck Malcolm a Counselor m the Heidelberg Germany army Community service fact Laid All cafes ii interested in doing is Mak ing Money. They Don t even have a method of running a credit  cafes officials consider i hair system adequate. Presently there Are no changes planned in the method of conducting cred it checks for our App customers at the current method ii working satisfactorily an cafes spokesman Laid. Formalized credit checks Are not Fea sible in that the majority of Youngen listed customers have no established credit and few cuslr1 is have credit references in  the major commands agree. A spokes Man noted. For example the tact thai cafes neither conducts credit Check nor pays the Cost of collecting bad debts Are some of the reasons Why they Are Able to keep the interest Rale  Malcolm the Heidelberg Counselor Laid he sees a definite correlation Between the number of people seeking financial assistance and those using App. He said when a Soldier becomes overdue and Delin quent with App cafes will collect the balance due in a Lump sum thus creating further hardships Lor the financially strapped Soldier. Arm sell tics Usa eur statistics indicate few sol Diers Are suffering financially due specifically to cafes garnishments. After surveying three typical finance offices in june the army released the following in formation at one location of 10,600 account 216 were in default and collected in full. In 10 cases no collection was permitted due to severe debts accumulated by the Soldier or the person had left the command. At another location 91 out of 7,900 accounts were in default and 74 were collected in full while in 17 cases cafes had to accept a partial payment. The air Force report a similar glory. For the drat six months of 1980. 78 collections were processed for App defaults in Safe. In All but two of the collections both unusual cases airmen received at least one third of their Ray. According to  Baird Counselor Holly Sha Vuz cafes should Check people credit history More thoroughly. They would find out some Are not Good credit risks the Taid. Verification it lick cafes Taid ii requires applicant in grades Al to e-5 to submit a unit com Mander s verification letter which Vali dates a Soldier s rotation Date and Indi Cates whether the Soldier Hai had financial or disciplinary problems also cafes said it Cross a Necly App applications with the dishonoured Check Section. Those whose Check cashing privilege re currently suspended ire not allowed to participate in the program a fes did. At Camp Darby Italy sgt. . Rich Ard t. Thrift i he his i Low opinion of the Way cafes u handling App. Thrift Deputy finance officer at the base said obey Iro not doing their Job properly. Cafes ii mowing the Young Soldier to have Loo much credit. They look at hit Les and nuke a decision that Juit does t Tell the Dory Thrift said. Personally checked out the App pro Gram to fee How easy u ii to borrow $1.0001." the sergeant did. In my own opinion 1 could i afford to take on a i 000 debt Yel cafes approved my loan. Their screening process Lake about five Minucci. Yon Don t walk into Sears or Penny Sand get ,000 credit in five min utes. Cafes has no incentive to do a thorough credit Check. They know the finance offices will get their Money for  spokesman for Sears Roebuck and co. Said credit approval lakes a week or less. Usually about two weeks said a . Penney spokesman. Both retail firms said they use a variety of Means to Check credit rating of their customers from verifying employment status to checking references and current standings Wilb credit agencies and credit bureaus. During the first five months of this year 3,860 of the approximately 60,000 existing App accounts were delinquent cafes said. The larges number of delinquencies 675, ii at Glessen where the program hits been in effect since june 197b. The next largest number by location is Fuerth where 476 account were delinquent Dur ing the five month period. App has been available to Fuerth customers Tinct sep tember 1979, cafes said. Situation elsewhere elsewhere in Germany Counselor in a Schaffenburg and at Rhein main a said they were not aware of any significant increase in the number of people seeking counselling since the Advent of App in those communities. A source at wild flock in said App had not been in effect Long enough for her to assets the situation. Likewise a Public affairs spokesman at Camp new Amsterdam the Netherlands said the App program was Loo new in effect since May 1 to assess. Air Force t. Sol. Pat Walters who monitors the personal financial manage ment program at in Ciurlik cd. Turkey pointed to a trend an his installation. Most of the people who arc on our pro Gram Are also an  attitude an payments he said airmen exposed to the instant credit seemingly make purchases without regard to an eventual payback. No one said 1 would have to Malta regular pay ments is the attitude Many of the de Faulter take waiters said. He said Many people do not have a budget and no concept of financial management. It hits them hard when cafes collects in a Lump sum. They can go 2-2vt months with out any pay wallers said. At bad kissing in Germany a financial spokesman was undecided As to whether App was hurting or helping soldiers. Moil of the people having financial Trou ble Are not there because of App but they Are using App because the can t get cred it elsewhere. The App application is one you can lie on. Soldiers just have to say they have 1300 of uncommitted income each month. No one checks it out the spokesman said adding you really can t blame cafes they re in business. And they know icy will get their Money  cafes said customer must have at least s300 a month of uncommitted in come in order to be eligible for the full so 000 credit. If a customer has Leas than s300 uncommitted income the store Man Ager will decide what the account limit will  cafes said. A Crail Heim Germany Counselor said most of his credit strapped clients were also using App. It s hard to say Why that is maybe some arc lying on the credit  in Nuernberg Christian said soldiers were dipping into Are funds because of App Bills. Trie number of Are Loans to personnel to prevent privations because they Are using rent and foot Money to pay App Bill i astounding Christian wrote. Also Over 50 percent of our financial counselling Case involve personnel who have gotten in Over their beads with the open Index App. One of Christian s client u a classic example of How easily the average i can gel into financial difficulty. It began innocently enough. A married e-4 with three children the specialist applied for App even though he was already making other loan pay men a at the time. It was very convenient to shop with a .000 line of credit he said. Two months after opening Hii 11,000 account the Soldier had spent All the Money and began making payment of j89 a month. Coupled with his of her Bills App strained the family budget. Then disaster struck in the form of a personal emergency and he a in Well Over Hii head. When he realized that hit monthly Bills exceeded his income the go went to his company commander who referred him to Christian for counselling. Now on � regular budget with the help of Christian the Man u slowly Methodi Cally digging his Way out of the financial Hole he dug Lor himself. He make regular though reduced monthly payments to each of Hii creditors and Hopes to be out of Hii financial bind this time next year. Looking Back the Soldier