New credit card rules protect consumers from abuse

[babylonsister]

http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/money/new-credit-card-rules-protect-consumers-from-abuse

New credit card rules protect consumers from abuse
New credit card rules save consumers money

Posted: 11:04 AM
Last Updated: 2 hours and 9 minutes ago

* By: Sherrie Johnson


BALTIMORE, MD - New credit card rules means astronomical late fees are history. It's all thanks to the Credit Card Act of 2009. The final phase went into effect over the weekend.

The fees will be limited to $25 and can't be more than your minimum payment. One exception, if you've had another late payment in the past six months, the fee can be as much as $35.

Banks can also only charge one penalty fee each billing cycle. This means they can't keep hitting customers with a new late fee every day.

There's also no more fees for not using your credit card often enough. If your interest rate is about to go up, the credit card company has to tell you why.

If your rate has been raised since January of 2009, your card company has to go back and make sure the higher rate is justified. They must do this every six months with every rate hike.

Consumers should read the fine print to be on the lookout for any new charges banks decide to install to make up for lost revenue.

[dipsydoodle]

1. protect consumers from abuse ?

Do they hold them between their knees ? :shrug:

[Milo_Bloom]

2. No real protection here, unfortunately.

For example, they can't charge a "fee" for not using your card often enough, but they can tie a "promotional APR" to the use of your card or they can "waive your membership fee" based on use of the card.

Also keep in mind "justification" is 100% in the eye of the company, so they can raise your interest rate as much as they want, so long as they give you a reason.

I had a fun one very recently, they reduced my available credit without telling them and then charged me an over the limit fee when the monthly interest put the card over their new "limit". They then stood behind the credit card act saying that they were mandated to make these changes and charge these fees. Luckily I had a contact in the CEO's office and was able to get everything reversed and put back to normal, but not everyone will have that advantage and I am sure thousands of people were hit with this strategy.

[ejpoeta]

3. to hear them talk on the today show, which may well be the case, credit card companies

are going to raise fees because of the new law. to my mind, though, it seemed they were putting it in that context to make it sound like a bad thing. this law is by no means the best one they could have come up with. but at least there is SOME protections in there for consumers who have seen their payment dates changed from month to month to ensure they would be late so they could incur a late fee. the banks have been playing all kinds of tricks on their customers and though i wish it would have given better protections to us as consumers at least there is something in there for us.

[Radical Activist]

4. Awesome!

It's too bad they waited so long to let the rules go into effect, but I'm glad to see this finally get done.

[DJ13]

5. No interest cap, no real protection

They'll just do a dozen end runs around the new law and keep pushing rates higher as a result.

[AndyA]

6. Better than nothing, but it falls short of the real protections consumers deserve.

Everyone I know got a huge interest rate hike before this law went into effect. There should have been something to prevent that. There are a lot of holes. I guess Congress can't write anything but sloppy bills full of holes these days. :eyes:

[Stargazer99]

7. Capital One Bank

I sent in a payment on time, they cashed it, but because I did not have the account number on the money order they charged me for a late payment. I don't remeber if they even credited the money order to my account. I work as a bookkeeper for 3 enitites and everytime one of their offers come in the mail I destroy it. That is as close as I can come to pointing their gun to their feet.