Credit Cards Articles

In line with the CARD Act, the Federal Reserve announced the new rules this week. The new protection measures will go into effect August 22. The rules will be the final installment of the CARD Act and will cap late fees and help provide some relief from rate increases on credit cards.

The new rules involve:

Late Payment Fees
Most of the late payment fees on a credit card bill will be capped at $25. The fee can increase up to $35 if one of the last six payments you made was late or if the issuer can provide proof the costs justified a higher fee.

Penalty Fees
Penalty fees can not exceed the amount of the violations that incurred the fee.

Read more…

Most major credit cards today offer fraud protection, which protects your credit rating — and your assets — in case your credit card is stolen or if fraudulent charges appear on your credit card.

This should be one of the primary benefits you look for when you apply for a new credit card. Ideally, you want to find a card with $0 fraud protection, which means there is no deductible and you are not liable for ANY fraudulent charges on your card. Some cards make you pay the first $50 in fraudulent charges.

You may also want to look at the amount of fraudulent charges you are protected up to … in other words, you are covered for fraudulent charges that do not exceed $250,000 — or whatever amount. This is

Read more…

Ever sincethe 2009 federalcrackdown on abusive credit card practices set out to expose companies that unfairly charged consumers to use their cards, a number of other credit card abuses have been discovered.

According to a report released by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act and a study from the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project, while most of the practices deemed unfair or deceptive by the Federal Reserve have disappeared, credit card companies have come up with new harmful behaviors to take their place.

Read more…

There has been so much talk about the Credit Card Act over the past year and what that legislation means in terms of consumer protections and the behavior on the part of the credit card companies who issue cards. There has been little discussion or media coverage on the changes that have been implemented specific to gift card use. The credit card regulations fully intended to implement rules relating to gift cards.  In March 2010 the Federal Reserve published a new set of rules regarding gift card use and consumer disclosure.

The Frequently Purchased Gift
Americans use gift cards for weddings birthdays anniversaries, and baby shower gifts; just to name a few.

Read more…