New Rules for Credit Cards

Now that President Obama has signed the new Credit Card Responsibility Act into law this past Friday, people are already wondering who this will help and who it will hurt.  To be sure, the new law will help people who carry balances and who also have marginal credit scores.  This will help keep rates from skyrocketing just for being late on some other payments.  It will also give everyone more time to make payments and more notice when the credit card issuer decides to make policy changes.  Read more about the new rules here:

New Credit-Card Law:  What It Means for You

Now here's who could get hurt by the new rules, people who pay their balance every month.  A lot of people use their credit cards responsibly and do not carry balances subject to high interest rates and fees.  Because of this, they only use credit cards with no annual fee.  Credit card companies ironically call these people "deadbeats" because they do not make a lot of money on them for obvious reasons.  With the new credit card rules coming, some people speculate that credit card companies and banks will begin charging annual fees to everyone, as a way to make up for the lost revenue of cutting back on finance charges to others.  For more on this take read here:

Banks my revive annual fees to offset credit card limits

Now this won't happen right away, but it pays to start keeping a closer eye on your statements and mailings from your credit cards.  Credit cards aren't bad if used properly.  The trick is to stay in control of your cards, and not let the credit cards be in control of you!  I just got a $250 check from my Chase Freedom cash back card!  Thanks Chase!