Finally some sensible credit card rules have been passed to go into effect as of July 1, 2010. According to Demos a pubic policy research organization
1. Prohibit banks from retroactively increasing the interest rate their customers must pay on existing balances.
2. Prohibit banks from allocating payments to lower-rate balances first to maximize finance charges
3. Ban the practice of “double-cycle billing” which calculates interest over more than one month, and can result in higher finances charges
4. Eliminate upfront fees on so-called fee harvesting credit cards when they eat up the majority of the available balance on the cards
5. Require banks to provide consumers a reasonable amount of time to make payments.
We’ll see how the implementation of these rules actually play out with the sneaky credit card companies. Undoubtably, it is defenintely a step in the right direction!
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