Politics

Credit Card Reform Takes Effect Today

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

The Credit CARD Act, one of President Obama and the 111th Democrats’s most substantial pieces of regulatory reform legislation so far, goes into effect today.

Essentially, the bill tamps down on the most abusive practice’s of credit card companies by either banning them outright or setting new rules regarding timeliness and fairness of disclosure. For example, credit card companies can no longer hike interest rates retroactively, to previously existing balances, but they can still increase current interest rates as high as they like, albeit with a new 45-day notification requirement.

The White House has a good fact sheet on what’s in the bill. Felix Salmon has some thoughts on what the credit card companies will be doing to create new revenue streams, i.e. more rewards cards (with fewer actual rewards) and more strange fees.

Flickr photo used with CC license from xJasonRogersx.

Full post as published by Open Congress on February 22, 2010 (boomark / email).