Credit card reforms coming, eventually
Today, the Federal Reserve is expected to approve credit card reforms that will end universal penalty hikes if you're late on one card. But Janet Babin reports we may have to wait awhile until we see them.
A window sticker advertising Visa and MasterCard credit cards in San Francisco (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
More on America's Financial Crisis
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: The Federal Reserve is expected to approve credit card reforms today. They'll be good changes for customers. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a while to see them. Marketplace's Janet Babin reports from North Carolina Public Radio.
Janet Babin: The changes will put an end to rates that just go up, whenever -- and they'll prohibit one credit card company from changing your terms just because you might have paid late on another card. But the reforms aren't supposed to go into effect until 2010.
Burt Flickinger with Strategic Resource Group says until then, credit card companies will actually charge consumers more in fees and fines, while they still can:
Burt Flickinger: Two million consumers will probably go down during that time, where the economy and the country can't afford to have any more consumers going down because of higher interest rate levels on credit card debt.
The American Bankers Association says the reforms will be a challenge to the credit card business that's already struggling with record customer defaults.
I'm Janet Babin for Marketplace.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
From NY, 12/19/2008
Credit cards are absolutely able to be included in a bankruptcy! Get your facts straight.
From sunnyvale, CA, 12/18/2008
We always have to be grateful to Mr Clinton for removing credit cards from the bankrupcy! Now you can be up to your ears and you can not include you CC in a bankrupcy, especially when people go on the streets due to his removal of controls of financial institutions. Thanks bill!
12/18/2008
The reforms need to be in place quickly to help end the recession. Until that happens consumers have less to spend on goods because their available income goes to paying high interest and fees instead of consumer spending. Consumers are spending more on paying down their cards and less on consumer goods to get out from under the high interest rates. Because of the high interest and fees consumers are limiting their spending to what they can pay cash.
And it is just absurd that despite sending a written notification to cancel my Bank of America card, they keep sending me balance transfer checks and raising my credit limit. They send me a change of terms notice every month. The change of terms notice has no identification or even a date of the change, so that when I send the letter of rejection of the change of terms, there is now way to reference which change of terms notification that I am referring to.
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.