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Credit card reforms offer consumer protections

Federal regulators Thursday adopted new rules for the credit card industry that are designed to protect consumers from what some people have deemed to be unfair practices in the credit industry.

Some of the consumer protections included in the new law:

·        Consumers will have to be given 45 days notice before any changes are made to the terms of an account.

·        Credit issuers cannot charge excessively high fees for exceeding a credit limit because of a “hold” being placed on an account.

·        Banks are forbidden from imposing interest charges using the “two-cycle” billing method.

·        Consumers must be allowed a reasonable amount of time to make their credit card payments.

·        Banks are prohibited from applying payments in a way that would unfairly maximize their interest charges.

You can read more about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The new laws won’t take effect until July 1, 2010.  I have not been able to find any explanation so far as to why it’s going to take nearly 18 months for things to kick in.

I guess it’s a case of better late than never.  What do you think?

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