Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act last May. There is a ton of good consumer protection clauses in this Act, including:
1. Restrictions on arbitrarily raising interest rates;
2. Restrictions on Universal default (that is when your credit card company penalizes you for being late with ANOTHER credit card company;
3. Charging interest on debts already paid.
So, there are lots of new protections for the consumer! That’s good, right?
SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
The problem is that Congress (in its wisdom) gave the credit card companies 15 months before the majority of the new rules go into affect.
Now I have a question for you: would your credit card company/bank take advantage of the 15 month delay in the new rules?
YOU BETCHA!
A new study just came out revealing that the banks have raised interest rates 20% in the first half of this year when in fact the cost of lending has decreased!
This should come as no suprise since consumer advocates warned that if you give the credit card companies/banks time, they would exploit that time and rip-off the consumer. What else did they expect?
New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank have introduced legislation to move up the February deadline to December 1 of this year. The banks are screaming bloody murder so this must be a good idea.
The moral of this article is: watch your credit card terms very closely. The credit card companies and banks are not your friends.
Related posts:
- Pre-Paid Credit Cards – Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing (Part I) This is the first in a series of articles discussing...
- Banks Revise Overdraft Fees There has been an ongoing problem with bank overdraft fees,...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
