Regulating the Cards
From Sunday’s WaPo:
The Federal Reserve on Thursday will vote on sweeping reform of the credit card industry that would ban practices such as retroactively increasing interest rates at will and charging late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make payments.
….Among the many provisions is a ban on raising interest rates on existing balances unless the customer was 30 days or more late in paying the minimum….Banks would also not be able to treat a payment as late if the customer had not been given a fair amount of time to make that payment.
The proposal would also dictate how credit card companies should apply customers’ payments that exceed the minimum required each month. When different annual percentage rates apply to different balances on the same card, banks would be prohibited from applying the entire amount to the balance with the lowest rate. Many card issuers do that so that debts with the highest interest rates linger the longest, thereby costing the consumer more.
This is long overdue.
The card companies are lobbying this to death, but considering that Paulsen et al are considering bailing out this part of the industry,so preemptive regulation to get these companies to better manage their (soon to be taxpayers’) risk better seems right. The even better news is that apparently Chris Dodd is planning to reintroduce his credit card regulation bill from earlier this year in the 2009 session.
Tags: Banks, Bush's Fubar Economy
You mean the Fed could have done this all along?
fuck them with a fork!
For whatever reason, WaMu changed my rate to 32%! LOL! (it was around 17%)…Never late, never over limit, and always paid multiple times more than the minimum. But the wanker from India said “it is a risk based..blah, blah…” and finally said he could lower the rate to 22%.
I told him “Yeah, risk. You took one and lost.” I transferred the small balance over to another card at a ridiculous 12 months teaser rate…
Called WaMu back afterward and asked the CS rep if she understood what happened to the account recently. She said yes, and that their wanton pricing backfired. Offered me 10% to stay…
It’s about time credit card companies were regulated. I couldn’t stand their one-way contracts – you pay us back and we’ll change the terms any time we feel like it.
I have always loved the term “contract” and how they completly get away with repricing, blocking, teaser triggers etc it goes on forever to trap “Joe SixPack”, hey were is Sarah Palin on this? I guess all of that money they spent to it make impossible to file Bankruptcy
is coming to roost.
Please tell me they will rip Mr. Cawley out of his bed in Camden, ME and take his trillions he raped and pillaged for all under the farce of “terms of your agreement”