Using Credit Cards for Holiday Shopping? No help from Congress…
November 30th, 2009 Posted in Credit Cards
A congressional effort was supposedly in effect to help holiday shoppers who are picking up the tab with their credit cards this season, however it looks like this proposed law will be pushed back until February. This bill was aimed at thwarting the increase in APR hikes in which almost all major credit card companies are implementing.
A recent CNN article claimed that, “Tough new rules are already slated to go into effect on Feb. 22. The new rules, enacted by President Obama in May, prohibit banks from hiking interest rates on existing balances of fixed-rate cards unless the cardholder is two months late in paying the bill.
The article went on to state that, “interest rates on consumer credit cards have been increasing steadily since the second quarter of 2008, when rates were 11.88%. Since