New credit card disclosure rules
go into effect this month.
Come Feb. 22, card lenders such as Citibank and Chase will be barred from raising interest rates on most borrowers' existing balances, a practice that increasingly irked consumers the last decade and one of several that federal regulators and lawmakers finally barred as unfair and deceptive.
Also,
The Card Accountability and Disclosure Act makes it harder for credit companies to charge you fees that you don't expect.
The law requires issuers to give you the same due date each month and it requires them to mail your bill 21 days before it's due. That's up from 14 days. Consumer advocates say credit companies make millions in late fees because due dates tended to be moving targets.
The new regulations also say an issuer can't charge you a fee for going over your limit unless you agree to the fee in advance.
In addition, your bills will show you, in graphic form, how long it will take you to pay off your balance if you make just the minimum payment.
Like you, I know people who make financial decisions based upon their credit card balances. With the new rules it will be much harder to get additional lines of unsecured credit. This can't be good for retailers, but I think it is better for society in the long run.
New credit card disclosure rules go into effect this month.
1 comments:
The effect on retailers has already been felt months ago. Advanta went belly-up and nobody stepped up to replace it. Amex went on a spree of cutting benefits & features. I haven't even bothered to try and get a replacement card for the Advanta one since it is apparent nobody is interested in giving lines of credit like this.
In short, credit card companies become superdicks for a short while (instead of being randomly dicky) in order to get all their dickery in before the laws cut down on the random dickishness.
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