Great News for Credit Card Borrowers…

Over the weekend, you may have received a letter from your credit card company about the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Fact-Sheet-Reforms-to-Protect-American-Credit-Card-Holders/). My bank sent me a list of the changes and included the effective date – February 2010. This Act was signed by the Obama Administration in May of this year, but I forgot about it until now.

This change to policy will be helpful to borrowers who struggle to make payments on time and suffer rising interest rates. It also forces credit card companies to apply payments to the debt with the higher interest rate first rather than pay off the teaser rate. I am hoping this will finally give those who find themselves continually stuck in the cycle of debt, a real chance to get ahead.

One of the changes, my favorite of all, is the restriction on issuing cards to those under 21. My first card was peddled to me on my college campus at the ripe old age of 19. I got in the habit of spending more than I made and by 21, I was more than $2,500 in debt.

Of course there is still a down side to this – I read an interesting article about how the changes will affect those who are careful with payments and are ‘good’ borrowers. It doesn’t look good! Check out the article at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1791592/us_credit_card_issuers_must_prepare_pg2.html?cat=3

Regardless, I think this change will be good for those seeking to become debt free.

Posted by Beks on December 22, 2009 at 5:00 AM in Credit Cards, General Personal Finance, Good Info | 2 Comments »
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.


Newer PostsOlder Posts

  1. Edwin responded:
    Posted: December 22nd, 2009 at 8:33 pm

    I got one of these letters from BoA and found it rather amusing. What came to mind was a manager begrudgingly writing up the letter hatefully counting his lost profits.

  2. Kevin responded:
    Posted: January 22nd, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    The credit card companies had what seems like nearly a year to prepare for CCARDA. They’ve raised rates, lowered credit limits, expanded access to minors and increased fees. All in anticipation of regulation controlling this behavior. Eventually, thought, there will be some meat behind CCARDA, years down the road these tactics will not be relevant because they’ll be phased out as consumers eventually pay down their balances. At least, that’s what most journalists and bloggers assumed. CCARDA expires one year after it begins. Useless.

Leave a Reply

About This Site

My Debt

  • Original Debt: $38,495.86
  • Paid: $19,149.13
  • Remaining: $19,346.73
  •  
  • Broken Down
  • Auto Loan 1: $0
  • Credit Card: $0 Woo Hoo!
  • Student Loan: $9,501.52
  • Auto Loan 2: $9,845.21

Categories

  • Supporting Sites

    Note: This is the end of the usable page. The image(s) below are preloaded for performance only.

    Offset header image Offset header image