Right now is a pretty interesting time for credit card issuers and credit card users alike. The entire industry is in flux, thanks to the recent economic turmoil and a flurry of tits-for-tats regarding credit card regulation. By far, the most prominent credit card legislation is the much talked about Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (The Credit CARD Act of 2009), but there are a number of other bills pertaining to lending, debit cards and credit cards making their way through congress right now. Already, we see the rules of the credit card game changing drastically in response to the CARD Act – and it hasn’t even fully gone into effect yet. In order to get a sneak peek at what may be in store, as well as exercise your civic duty to keep abreast of pending laws, you can pop on to a site called Open Congress that allows you to read bills, track the progress of bills and learn more about the sponsors. To get you started, here are a few that you may be interested in:

H.R.627 – Credit CARD Act of 2009

This bill (now law) has been talked about heavily in the media and the blogosphere. But have you ever taken a first hand look at what’s inside? This bill was spearheaded by Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York (D), who is also sponsoring a bill to reform overdraft protection and a bill to expedite the CARD Act (see below). This, as you know by now, was signed into law on May 22, 2009 and seeks to stop lenders from arbitrarily hiking interest rates, charging over-the-limit fees and targeting college students, among other provisions. The rough thing, as we’ve seen, is that many of these perks for consumers don’t go into effect until February 2010, and the banks have been scrambling in the meantime to stack the deck in their favor before that time rolls around. Which leads to the next bill of note…

H.R.3639 – Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009

As the name implies, this bill seeks to move up the effective date of the CARD Act to December 1, 2009 and was introduced on September 24, 2009. This effort seems to be a situation of too little too late, though, as that’s only 2 months sooner than the February 2010 date and if this bill doesn’t get passed in the next two months, it’s hardly going to matter. Plus, by now, most credit card companies have already gone ahead and slashed all the rewards and switched all the interest rates to variable rates that they intend to. Still, may be interesting to keep an eye on.

S.1927 – Credit Card Rate Freeze Act of 2009

This bill was introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd from Connecticut (D) on October 26, 2009. This bill is a little bit more straightforward than the expedition bill and perhaps has a better chance of making a difference. The Baltimore Sun has an interesting writeup of the bill. Here’s a quick quote:

“No sooner had it been signed into law, credit-card companies were looking for ways to get around the protections this Congress and the American people demanded,” said Dodd, D-Conn. “This bill would end those abuses and further protect customers today.”

You may remember Chris Dodd’s letter from April urging Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to regulate banks, in which he said:

Credit card providers have been aggressively raising rates on consumers now to avoid the ramifications of this rule when it goes into effect next year.  Companies have increased interest rates across the board now, to increase interest rates before the new rules go into effect.  Consumers describe situations to our offices in which the interest rates on their accounts have doubled or tripled overnight, without any misconduct on their part.  This kind of practice clearly violates the spirit and intention of the rules, even if the delayed implementation date has the effect of making such behavior legal.

This bill basically urges the same thing.

H.R.3904 – Overdraft Protection Act of 2009

This bill was introduced on October 22, 2009 and represents Rep. Maloney’s continued efforts to protect debit card users from exorbitant overdraft fees. We talked about Maloney’s crusade against overdraft fees here at MYC back in September 2009 back when the cause rallied under H.R.1456 – Consumer Overdraft Protection Fair Practices Act. This new bill doesn’t seem much different and seeks to:

• Compel banks to allow customers to “opt in” to overdraft protection, rather than signing up for it by default
• Give debit card holders the decision to reject overdrafts at the register when they have insufficient funds
• Limit overdraft penalties to 1 per calendar month and 6 per year
• Reduce the amount levied for overdraft fees

Other Bills

There are tons of other bills relating to credit cards and the credit industry. Click here to view all credit related bills at OpenCongress.  You might want to check out H.R.3214 – Rating Accountability and Transparency Enhancement Act which seeks to reform the credit rating system and H.R.3126 – Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009, which seeks to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, as the name implies.

Already following a bill or legislation? Let us know which laws matter to you in the comments section.

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Related posts:

1. Defeat Overdraft Fees and Debit Card Trickery Using Credit Card Smarts
2. Debit Card Reform: What Are Your Thoughts?
3. The CARD Act: How it Will and Won’t Protect You After February 22
4. New Credit Card Rules: Brace Yourself for the Backlash
5. Debit Cards Causing Overdraft Fees