New Credit Card Regulations About To Go Into Effect
The much vaunted credit card reform regulations that we’ve been hearing about for the past year are just weeks away now. The credit card companies have wasted no time portraying themselves as victims of the new legislation.
The main component of the regulations, in a nutshell, curbs the ability of credit card issuers to arbitrarily raise interest rates. This is one of several components of the new rules which will take effect on February 22, 2010.
The banks and financial institutions that issue credit cards have already made the argument that they are losing money because of the new rules. Because of this, they claim, they are justified in raising fees to make up for their losses.
And now we can start looking out for new and creative ways in which credit card companies can generate profits from. They have already acted preemptively by raising interest rates before the deadline and even closing some inactive accounts and or charging inactivity fees.
I’m afraid it won’t do a whole lot of good to shop around either. The credit card issuers are pretty much in lockstep with each other. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn that they are actually working together in order to find effective ways to increase profit margins.
With this said our best advice is to keep a close eye on your statements and any other correspondence that you get from your credit card company. We really won’t know how this will unfold until it actually happens. Until then we will be sure to keep an eye on any and all new developments.
Related Information:
- New Credit Card Regulations Approved The new credit card regulations have been adopted. Find out what this will mean for you....
- What The New Regulations Will Mean To Subprime Credit Cards Sub-prime credit cards will be affected by new regulations. Find out how....
- Federal Reserve To Rule On New Credit Card Regulations The Federal Reserve will weigh in on new credit card rules currently being proposed....
- How Credit Card Reform Will Affect Consumers Find out how credit card form will affect you, if at all....
