I had heard a blurb about this about a month ago but wasn’t able to hear the whole story.  Today it popped into my head and went looking around for the story.  Congress has finally taken some actions to protect the public for the evil Credit Card Companies.   This legislation is a long time coming for an industry that enjoyed almost zero regulation since their inception.

A couple of the best changes I saw were:

1. If the credit card issuer does decide to raise your rate for any reason it ONLY applies to purchases you make AFTER the rate changes.   This is HUGE for consumers because it gives the public a better insurance of what their payment and balance is going to be even if they do default on their card.

2. Any payment made over the minimum balance will go toward the highest interest rate balance.  Many card issuers entice customers to transfer balances and then continue using their card.  Under current regulations all the payments made will go to the lowest rate balances before EVER touching the high rate ones.

The bad news is the legislation does not go into affect until July 1, 2010, but at least the process has been started.  Thanks Uncle Sam!

For the entire story see http://credit.about.com/od/consumercreditlaws/tp/new-credit-card-rules.htm