| Posted at 07:14 AM on January 13, 2010 |
"Credit card companies squeezing customers"
As new law approaches, banks rush to raise rates and boost fees
The Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act will be a real game-changer – for both banks and cardholders – when it takes full effect next month.
The law, which goes into effect Feb. 22, will (among other things) prohibit raising the interest rates during the first year a credit card account is opened, ban interest rate hikes on existing balances and require promotional rates to last at least six months.
“The new law bans the worst unfair practices the banks had been perpetrating on consumers,” says Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer programs at U.S. PIRG.
Congress gave the industry nine months to prepare for the changeover. Many banks, as expected, used this time to put the squeeze on their current customers and boost income from new cardholders.
READ more about this at: msnbc.msn.com/id/34730372/ns/business-consumer_news/
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