Credit cards have been a big stress factor and source of money issues in most of the 
population for quite some time now. The high interest rates that go up and down, various fees and lack of wanting to actually help reduce the credit card holder’s debt hasn’t been regulated.
In February 2010, that will change. The credit card regulation will help cardholders avoid retroactive interest rates on existing card balances, allow for more time to pay their bills, fewer penalty fees, late fees, interest payments and give more of a notice of changes in credit card terms.
Until then though, closely watch what is showing up in your credit card statements each month. “Card companies are trying to come up with a number of ways to make up for the revenue they expect to lose and also minimize their financial risks in light of rising card-delinquency and default rates,” says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com.
One of the biggest ways for these credit card companies to recover some of their financial loss is to increase the interest rates and payments due right now. Even if you have a fixed interest rate, you may not be safe. If it is already a high interest rate, you need to watch it even closer.
These interest rates also are affected by your credit score. That is the reason some companies are also adjusting credit card limits without notice and lowering them significantly. For instance, if you have a limit of $10,000 and are carrying a $5,000 balance and they lower the limit to $6,000, you are using more of your available credit and it lowers your credit score. This will not only affect that credit card, it will also lower your credit score and raise interest rates on your other credit cards as well.
Another way for the credit card companies to get quick cash from consumers is with fees. Credit cards already have high fees for late payments, cash advances and balance transfers. These too have also been rising with most credit card companies. Only expect this to increase until February of next year.
The only way to beat this is to keep close watch on your credit card statements, try to keep a low balance and pay off your credit cards as soon as you can. If you see a problem arise on your credit card statements, call the customer service department of your credit card company. If they don’t want to work with you, then decide if keeping that credit card is really worth it or not.
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1 users resposed " Impending Credit Card Changes: What Consumers Should Know "
September 30 2009
Credit cards are really a great help, but sometimes it can be so worse that we may be better without them
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