The nine-month lead-in time for the Credit C.A.R.D. Act of 2009 has now passed and the law officially goes into effect to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive practices by credit card companies starting today, February 22, 2010. Here is our breakdown of the new credit card rules, who the Credit C.A.R.D. Act protects, which companies complied in advance and what protections are now guaranteed to cardholders by law.
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With the new credit card rules in effect, let BillShrink’s savings tools help you find the best credit cards for you!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Although some companies will still get away with doing things they shouldn’t be, I think it’s great that no one under 21 is able to have a credit card unless they have a co-signer or an independent means paying their bill.
I’m 19 and although I’m just fine, there’s a massive trend of teens fresh out of high school who get credit cards, then go bonkers with them. Hopefully this new rule will help out a lot.
CARD will help those on the edge who misuse their credit by punishing those who use it responsibly, but don’t have gold-plated credit. Watch for massive fee increases, including inactivity fees, annual fees and other ‘junk’ fees to be added to cards as the banks cry ‘pauper’.
Once again, regulation achieves a perverse result of hurting the majority to protect the few who dug their own holes.
my capitol one card expired, and they sent me a new one. after going through the athorization process. they sent me to a “live” operator. who informed me that congress was changing the laws about how many fee’s credit card companies could charge. (great i thought, about time). the operator told me they could no longer charge over limit fees. but as a special deal they could have that waved and lower the fee if i went over my limit for emergencies. instead of $40 for being overlimit it would only be $30 (not exact numbers). again they stressed emergency use for going over the limit. I laughed and declined. apparently there’s more loop holes in this law to help the credit card companies out. great news is, i can’t be an idiot and charge more than my limit!
Why don’t we give them a credit line. Then we can ding them for calling us and threaten us.
my Dad always said that banks were legalized loan sharks he was right. what ever happened to taking care of main street? where can I get a 0% interest rate?
main street?…lawl…go back to watching faux news, cheering for Palin 2012 and teabagging(dbl lawl)…they don’t owe you any thing you have to pay for their services…you want free, America is the wrong place to complain…
Why not just pay cash? If you can’t afford it, you don’t need it. Everything you allow someone else to do for you is going to cost you; protect you, advise you, guide you or loan you. So, learn to live within your means. And if that is not enough, increase your means.
Hey, thanks for the blog post.Really thank you! Want more.
Thanks, Jonathan! We also send out updates from Facebook and Twitter so be sure to ‘like’ and ‘follow’ us for more updates there. We’re holding a holiday contest for $300 right now. It’s a good time to start!