Credit Card Mix

The long overdue credit-card reform has finally landed at the Congress’ table calling for new regulations in fairness of issuer-consumer relations. Specialists are trying to solve the problem of overwhelming debt by creating more sensible and straightforward conditions under which credit card companies will have to provide their services.

Briefly About the Reform

The topics raised in the new credit-card reform will ensure that lenders give their borrowers at least 21 days after receiving their bills to pay. It also promotes banning arbitrarily increases in interest rates and “double-cycle billing” (the case when one month’s fees are based on two months of account activity).

According to the proposed plan, decreases in credit scores should not affect interest rates of the consumers who pay their bills on time. It will also make lenders to be more careful with the wording which they use to promote their offers, preventing them from making deceptive statements. Barring from initial payments being directed toward the lower-interest portion of a debt first and allowing the higher-interest balance to build up will also protect consumers from paying that extra money they could save otherwise.

While the news about the proposed credit-card reform looks like a big step to take control over the credit giants and it calms some of us, others have already started thinking about the consequences which will arise after the bill is approved. Credit card companies will lose a great chunk of money they are used to make and will be forced to restructure some of the aspects in their operations. It will not take long for them to adapt to the new situation and to create other predatory schemes to squeeze out that extra buck from us. After the reform takes place we should feel more protected. But let us not forget to be alert and read the fine print and learn all details of offers before committing ourselves to new contracts with credit card issuers.