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WSJ: Credit Card Companies Have "New Credit-Card Tricks"

By Brian Wolfman

The Wall Street Journal explains here that after the new Credit Card Act became effective last February, credit card companies were barred from making profits in certain ways. For instance, the Act generally bans "universal default" -- that is, credit card companies cannot raise rates on one credit card account (or all of a consumer's other accounts) just because the consumer was late or missed a payment on another, separate account. So, the companies are turning to other ways to make money, some of which are perfectly legal, such as raising annual fees, and some that may "skirt[] the new rules." This raises the question whether the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau established by the Dodd-Frank legislation will go beyond the Credit Card Act and seek to bar some credit card company practices as unfair and/or deceptive.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on August 03, 2010 (boomark / email).