Score one for the little guy. The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly, 90-5, to add regulations to the credit card industry, and the move could save consumers lots of money.
A few differences must be worked out with a similar bill passed in the House, but President Obama said he hopes to sign the law by Memorial Day, and it could take effect as early as this year.
Until the specifics come out, we know that, at the very least, this bill will:
- Make it more difficult for credit card companies to suddenly raise the rates of all consumers
- Make it more difficult for the credit card companies to issue fees and other charges to all consumers
This means that consumers struggling to keep up with their credit bills will get some breathing room in the form of lower rates and fewer charges. Consumers will also still have the ability to seek credit card debt relief through bankruptcy. From the Washington Post's coverage:
"This is landmark legislation that is going to make the credit card marketplace more transparent and more fair for millions of consumers," said Travis B. Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of American. "In particular, it's going to prevent credit card companies from suddenly and unjustly increasing interest rates."
We'll keep you posted as more details about the final bill emerge.
Filing Bankruptcy and Credit Card Debt
Are you deep in credit card debt? Chapter 7 bankruptcy was designed to eliminate credit card debt. Talk to a bankruptcy lawyer to see if filing bankruptcy could help you.
Tags: consumer credit, credit card debt, credit card news
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Your Credit Score. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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