More than 80 Texas Non-Profit Groups Meet in Dallas to get MoneyWi$e

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Consumer advocacy group Consumer Action and leading credit card provider Capital One today announced that their joint MoneyWi$e financial literacy partnership will provide free training to more than 80 non-profit groups from communities across Texas. The two-day seminar will kick off in Dallas on October 1, 2003 and will focus on six areas of financial management: banking, budgeting, understanding credit, credit repair, understanding bankruptcy and talking to teens about money.

"We created MoneyWi$e to provide consumers at all income levels with both the information and practical assistance they need to help better manage their finances," said Diana Don, Director of Financial Education at Capital One. "We believe that this training session, combined with new materials to be released this fall on understanding bankruptcy and talking to teens about money, will help support the efforts of Texas community organizations dedicated to engaging and educating consumers."

Consumer Action financial educators will lead the seminars. Additionally, a panel of representatives from non-profit groups will host a "best practices" workshop.

"We applaud the efforts of these Texas organizations to provide much- needed support and relevant information to their communities," said Ken McEldowney, Executive Director of Consumer Action. "This MoneyWi$e seminar is just one way we are able to assist these groups to continue to do what they do best: helping neighbors in their communities to help themselves."

Consumer Action and Capital One launched the MoneyWi$e partnership in November 2001. Since then, the program has produced and distributed a four- part series of MoneyWi$e educational materials to provide consumers with the building blocks for developing and honing personal finance skills, from saving and budgeting to balancing a checkbook, and understanding the basics of credit and credit repair. By providing free brochures in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese), the MoneyWi$e program is able to address financial literacy across both income and ethnic barriers.

In addition to distributing free materials online (www.consumer-action.org) and through a network of 6,500 CBOs nationwide, the MoneyWi$e program also will provide a limited number of "train-the-trainer" sessions during which Consumer Action staff members will meet with groups of CBOs to demonstrate how the MoneyWi$e materials and curriculum can be used most effectively.

About Capital One

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One Bank and Capital One, F.S.B., offer consumer lending products. Capital One, a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest providers of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the world. Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 500 index.

About Consumer Action

Consumer Action is a non-profit, membership-based organization founded in San Francisco in 1971. Consumer Action serves consumers nationwide by advancing consumer rights, referring consumers to complaint-handling agencies and publishing multilingual educational materials. Consumer Action also advocates for consumers in the media and before lawmakers and annually conducts comparison surveys for consumers on credit cards, banking issues and telecommunications issues.

Editor's Note: Consumer Action and Capital One will release two new financial tools in the MoneyWi$e series this Fall: Talking to Teens About Money and a Personal Guide to Bankruptcy.

SOURCE  Capital One Financial Corporation
    -0-                             10/01/2003
    /CONTACT:  Libby Holman, +1-202-778-1028, lholman@apcoworldwide.com, for
Capital One Financial Corporation/
    /Web site:  http://www.capitalone.com
                http://www.consumer-action.org/
    (COF)

CO:  Capital One Financial Corporation; Consumer Action
ST:  Virginia, Texas, California
IN:  FIN EDU
SU:  PDT NPT

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