If you are into reading lengthy government documents, click on the blog post title and you will be redirected to the 33 page, HR 627 document entitled: ‘‘Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009’’
If you'd rather just see a brief summary... here you go:
The act limits when credit card companies can increase interest rates and also bans billing and payment practices that the FTC deems "unfair or deceptive". The bill contains a significant limitation and explanation of when an issuer can raise interest rates on existing balances ( retroactive rate increase)...Issuers must give 45 days notice of a significant change in terms with the option to "opt-out"...smonthly statements must be sent out at least 21 days prior to due dates...no more Universal default -- the practice of increasing card users' interest rates based on their payment records with unrelated accounts, such as utilities or other credit cards -- is banned for existing credit card balances....you must now be given the option tOpt-In to overlimit fees, if you choose not to mopt-in, your over limit charge attempt will be declined rather than approved and over limit fees applied...
The above summary only details a small portion of what the bill regulates...if you have any credit cards (and who doesn't), it may pay to print out and read the entire bill.
I hope this is helpful to you.
