3/10/2007

Proposed Credit Card Regulations

Listening to the news this morning I heard a report about how horrible it is that credit card companies are allowed to change the terms of their agreements with customers without notice. Apparently, there is a move to pass a law requiring that credit card companies give notice (60 days) for customers before any change can occur. I was quite upset with the Foxnews interviewer. I wished she had asked two questions: 1) Won't that mean higher interest rates? 2) Couldn't the credit card companies offer that now? Doesn't it mean that since they aren't doing that that the customers do not value the benefits from this as much as the costs?

Here is apparently some news coverage of the hearings that took place this past week:

They only discover later that, buried somewhere in a dense, multi-page contract in small print, the lender reserves the right to change the terms - including the interest rate - at any time.
Getting yanked around like this understandably makes customers furious. And they're letting Congress hear about it.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Dad29 said...

Umnnnhhh...Card-issuers are well aware of market-rate changes, usually in advance.

You have to know those markets to be in the game.

Further, card-issuers are well aware of which customers are "good" and which are "bad."

They can still treat "good" customers well--or lose 'em.

3/11/2007 1:53 PM  
Blogger OldeForce said...

Which means you should pay off the card every month to avoid the interest charges.
Had a woman working with me who thought that "plastic" let her spend any amount she wanted, anytime. Came to me one day to ask if it was legal for a store to take away her MasterCard. As her minimum monthly payment due exceeded any monthly full amount I'd ever owed, and she wasn't paying anything as she couldn't pay the minimum, I had to tell her the store had every right. She was in debt for years.

3/12/2007 2:49 AM  

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