New Credit Card Rules Explained

March 5th, 2010
by Guest Blogger

[Today's guest blogger is Yvonne from the Federal Reserve.]

 

As the famous folk song goes, “Oh, the times they are a changing.” And so have the rules governing your credit card. (I guess that song reference shows my age, huh?) Well, no matter what age you are, you’ll want to know about the new federal credit card protections that took effect on February 22.

The new rules require credit card companies to adopt practices that will benefit credit card users, for example:

• Your credit card company cannot change your interest rate or make significant changes to the terms of your account without giving you 45 days notice and the chance to close your account.
• If you make more than the minimum monthly payment, the excess amount must be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate. 
• If your credit card company raises your interest rate, the new rate will apply only to new charges, not to your existing balance.

The Federal Reserve has launched a new site, which summarizes the new rules and explains how they will affect you. On the site, you can:

• Get the basic facts about common credit card options, interest rates, and fees.
• Estimate how long it will take to pay off a credit card balance and develop a plan for paying off the balance sooner.
• Use interactive features to learn more about credit card offers and the new features of your monthly statements.
• Find a glossary of common credit card terms for quick reference.
• Read federal credit protection laws.
• Discover additional resources, such as the “5-Tips” consumer publication series (also available Spanish).

Tags: credit, credit card rules, credit cards

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Banking, Credit and Debt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.