Today, February 22, 2010, the new CARD act rules go into effect. The aim of the legislation is to have a positive effect on credit card holders. These changes will likely cost most credit card-issuing institutions money, so they will be looking to make up for the lost income in new ways. According to a recent
CNN article those changes will likely include:
- New fees on items such as balance transfers and international purchases.
- Harder to qualify for a new credit card.
- Reduction in rewards programs.
- Potentially higher interest rates, since banks have moved customers over to variable rate cards: when the prime rate goes up, so will the interest on these cards.
Credit card holders need to be aware that, while the CARD act should benefit them in most ways, there are always loopholes that banks and financial institutions can exploit in an effort to maintain their profit margins in the credit card business.
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