Ohio: Matt Lundy

But this doesn't mean that such deals should be outlawed, as proposed by state Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, head of the House Consumer Affairs Committee. He is sponsoring House Bill 12, which would ban Ohio's colleges from making so-called affinity agreements with banks in which a college provides a bank with student data and exclusive rights to market its cards on campus.

Such deals are lucrative for universities. Ohio State University gets $1.4 million a year from its deal with Bank of America, and the bank receives a mailing list of students and staff and the right to put the school's logo on its cards. According to its latest filing in 2006, OSU's Alumni Association also receives $1.

Some had hoped that the commerce department, which regulates the payday-lending industry in Ohio, could act on its own to stop payday stores from charging higher rates for short-term loans than was envisioned last year under the state's new payday-lending law. House Bill 545 capped the annual interest rate at 28 percent.

Lenders are getting around the new law, which was affirmed overwhelmingly by voters in November, by offering short-term loans under Ohio's Small Loan Act. Many are then adding fees for credit checks or for cashing the check they just issued, raising the cost of the loan closer to the 391 percent interest rate that the General Assembly tried to eliminate.