New legislation assists credit card users!
In order to further spread some holiday cheer, the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee’s consumer credit subcommittee – Rep. Carolyn Maloney – has been passing around a bill that would eliminate some troublesome credit card practices that hurt pocketbooks the most.
The bill would no longer allow “universal default”, which allows card companies to raise rates if they’re late on any payment to anyone, or if their credit score falls for any reason. It would also increase the minimum notice period that companies have to tell consumers about changes in their card policy. It’s currently 15 days; Maloney’s bill would increase it to 45.
In addition, it would ban two cycle average daily balance billing, which allows card issuers to calculate interest over two billing periods. I talked more about this practice a few months ago.
A draft of this bill is currently being passed around to the card companies as well as consumer groups. It will most likely be introduced in 2008, along with a series of debates on the subject.
More info on the bill (and a draft of it) can be found at American Banker (free registration)
5 Most Recent Student Credit Card Blog Posts:
The Student Credit Blog is sponsored in part by:
