NIU students get a choice of credit systems to use when buying school supplies this fall.

An NIU credit system will allow any registered student, without outstanding bills, to charge up to $500 of textbooks, art and school supplies for the semester’s first four weeks.

Students will get charged for the credit system on their tuition and room and board bills, getting charged interest if bills are overdue as is the case with overdue bills for tuition and room and board, said NIU President John La Tourette.

The interest charge will be about one-and-a-quarter to one-and-a-half percent, La Tourette said.

If students are registered and show their register slips with a student ID they will be eligible for the NIU credit system, he said.

“Other vendors of textbooks and school and art supplies may wish to develop their own system” according to the NIU bookstore credit system, said James Harder, vice president of Business and Operations.

The Village Commons Bookstore is beginning its own system, which includes charge cards given to students. VCB will give cards to registered NIU students to use year round for any merchandise in the bookstore, said VCB owner Dick Boardman.

“It’ll be just like a Mastercard or Visa,” he said. The bookstore’s credit system is scheduled to begin in early August.

Representative John Countryman (R-DeKalb) proposed a bill to get NIU to allow equal chances for local vendors when the system was first discussed, but the bill was dropped once NIU allowed vendors to create their own system.

All local vendors of textbooks, school and art supplies interested in starting a credit system in their store can get a list of students similar to the NIU phone book, La Tourette said.

Vendors also get a table at class registration to pass out pamphlets and inform students of their credit system. NIU cannot solicit students to use the system without allowing local vendors to do the same, according to the credit system policy.