Credit cards have taken the life of many consumers by storm and have caused irreparable damage financially. This doesn’t imply that credit cards don’t have any benefits. Owing to the benefits they offer, an average American household has as many as 14 credit cards. However, if you are unable to maintain them wisely, you are heading for trouble.

Due to the credit crunch many lenders have altered their credit card payment policies and reduced credit limits of credit cardholders. However, these changes that were effected were not communicated to the consumers. This led to a lot of furor among the consumers. Consumers have complained about the same. And this is not the first time that the credit cardholders have expressed their disagreement with the credit card issuers and manner in which they operate.

To do away with the existing anomalies in the credit card industry, the Obama Administration introduced new regulations pertaining to the credit card industry. However, the changes will not come into effect before Feb/July 2010. The new regulations are expected to bring in some relief for the consumers.

Highlights of the new credit card regulations

The new credit card regulations are said to be consumer-friendly and it is anticipated that it will be successful in doing away with majority of the irregularities that exist in the credit card industry.

Given below are the major changes that will be taking place.

credit cards

• The new credit card rules make it mandatory for the lenders to notify consumers at least 45 days prior to increasing interest rate.
• It will do away with the practice of universal default
• The credit card issuer has to be transparent with the payment dates. The due date for a consumer will be 21 days after receiving the credit card bill.
• The new credit card rules give sufficient time to consumers to make payments for their credit card bills. For instance, if you are to make payment on a particular day and if that day happens to be a holiday, the payment can be made on the following day during the business hours.As per the new laws, an individual who is below 21 years will have to prove his income and should have a co-signer or undergo a financial awareness course prior to getting a credit card.

To quote the consumer program director of PIRG or Public Interest Research Groups, “What the bill does in a nutshell: It says banks cannot use unfair tricks and traps to extract massive interest income and keep consumers on debt treadmills, never getting out from under their credit card debt”.

Credit Card News From Debtcc Community Member

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