The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act 2009: “ Marks a turning point for American consumers, ending the days of unfair (credit card) rate hikes and hidden fees,” said a White House spokesperson.
Some of the main changes for cardholders are:
•Credit card companies must ensure that promotional rates last at least six months
•Interest rates cannot be raised in the first year after the account is opened
•Penalty fees should be in proportion to the consumer’s violation
•Credit card companies should ensure that the cardholder receives 45 days’ notice of interest rate, fee and finance charge increases
•Card companies must stop arbitrary interest rate increases and “universal default” on existing balances. In universal default, a lender can change a cardholder’s account to more costly default terms from normal terms when the lender learns the account holder missed a payment on an account with another lender, even if no payments have been missed with the first lender.
Credit Card Debt
Currently Americans owe around $1 trillion on their credit cards, many will only be repaying the minimum amount demanded by the lender without realizing the dangers.
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