In July of 2010 there are going to be some changes in the legislation concerning how interest rates are handled with credit cards. This legislation is supposed to help the American consumers; however upon going over them closely it appears more like a public relations stunt than something to truly help out the American consumer.

These are some of the most profound law changes that we have witnessed in decades and they come as a result of over 60,000 complaints to the Fed over the past couple of years. The complaints are over when consumers out of nowhere find themselves getting their interest rates drastically raised on their credit cards.

One of the largest changes is that people will no longer get their interest rates racked up on existing balances when they go a day or two past due. Instead the interest rate hike would be put on future purchases not the existing balance like the creditors do today. But if the late payment goes past thirty days then the interest rate increase will be applied to the existing balance as well. Credit card companies say in their defense that the reason for hiking up the rate is because these debtors are a higher risk of non payment.

One more change made is that the creditors must give people a forty five day warning to the fact that the interest rate is going to be jacked up; they can no longer just bump it up overnight without warning the consumer.

Personally I feel this is too little too late! How come we have to wait until next year for these laws to take effect? In addition if you are still over thirty days late than you would still see the high interest applied to your previous balance. And many consumers fall behind way further than one month, especially with today’ economy and employment market.

Plus these new laws will only take effect on the cards issued from July 2010 and forward. So anybody who has a card under a different enrollment agreement will still fall prey to the creditor’s abuses. People trapped with high credit card debts should seriously figure out how to get out of debt as soon as they can.

One of the best methods in which consumers have been accomplishing this is through debt settlement companies; a method in which the consumer will save a lot of cash and become debt free within a couple of years. Getting you the correct credit card debt relief should be a top concern.

Posted in Finance ~