LOOOONG overdue. When the credit card companies started retroactively charging higher rates on existing balances, I couldn't believe they were allowed to get away with that - it was clearly a violation of an existing contract. About time this practice was stopped.

I'm not as familiar with the bill as I should be. What about people who have already had their rates jacked? Is there some form of rate rollback based on good payment history, or are all those people just screwed?

It won't help the economic recovery if people already paying Tony Soprano rates don't get some form of relief.

It's been a busy week, and the "Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act" hasn't gotten much in the way of attention. That's a shame, because it's a pretty good bill, which President Obama signed into law this afternoon.

You don't say! Something good this administration has done isn't getting MSM attention. Wow, I AM Sooooooooooooo SHOCKED. Yada yada yada. SSDD. You know, we could just assume that was going to happen and do everything in our power to keep it from continuing to happen infinitely into the future. NAH! Better to sit here and just bitch about it.

And the price was only turning our national parks into NRA shooting ranges.

Obviously the Money Party wants to reduce consumer credit, perhaps to cut their future losses, perhaps to lessen the power available to the middle class in the coming class war.

This congress has already passed several progressive priorities - increased the minimum wage, middle class tax cut, HSR and other green initiatives, and now the credit card bill. I don't think they are getting the credit that should get for what they have done.

I'm not sure this is covered, but does this mean the end of "Universal Default"? That was where Company A could raise your rates b/c of a payment issue with Company B, even though you were on time in your payments to Company A.

as noted on dailykos... we can also now bring loaded guns into National Parks... and guess what, the White House is a National Park... no, really, it is...

So why do we have to wait 9 months for this bill to go into effect? What do they think CC companies are going to do between now and then? I will live in fear until this is in effect.

I had two questions, but David beat me to one of them (have we gotten rid of universal default? please?). Here's the other one: a credit-card company now has to wait until you're 60 days late (on their card, we hope, not on some other company's card) to raise the interest rate on your existing balance. So you're clearly in over your head, you're having trouble paying what you owe: how does raising your interest rate make it MORE likely that you'll pay?

Someone please help me out here, because I genuinely don't understand why companies do this. Granted, they're rapacious scum, but I would think they'd be *rational* rapacious scum, that is wanting above all else to get paid. If they dig you in deeper by jacking up the interest rate, isn't it more likely that you'll just give up all hope of ever paying, with or without actually filing for bankruptcy? Raising rates must benefit them, else they wouldn't do it, but I really don't understand how. (I do get the logic that by not paying you've put yourself into a higher-risk pool with a higher default rate, so they have to charge everyone in that pool more interest to make the same profit, but when I consider the effect on the individual consumer it doesn't make sense.)

Without a cap on interest rates this is more PR than substance. Really meaningful reform would have stopped the gouging and established stricter standards for who gets offered a credit card to begin with.

Happy this passed. Not surprised that Capital One just raised my rate from 8.4% to 17.4% "because of the economic conditions." They said it had nothing to do with my creditworthiness (nor did it). This is just the sign of things to come.

Again, I'm happy this is law, but don't think this is the end of the battle by any stretch of the imagination.

rrk1 - I've got to disagree that this is more PR than substance. While I agree that an interest rate cap would have been nice, this really did help fix the worst of the worst problems. I suspect a lot of people won't even be affected by this, as most cards didn't do some of these things. But overall, I think this will help.

And I DEFINITELY disagree with the idea that the government should create standards on who gets a card. I think the market can do that just fine. But I think we should make bankruptcy easier again, to give these companies incentives to not overload people with debt. Overall, I think card companies need to realize that they're not the only players in town, and that if Company A is putting the screws to someone who's also with Company B, Company B will get less money. There's a finite amount of money that people can pay back and after that, everyone gets screwed.

If this is "reform" I'm the queen of Sheba

Lucia: On why banks raise rates on customers who are already late in their payments ... My understanding is that, since a payment you make always covers your interest and finance charges first, THEN gets applied to your remaining balance ... higher interest means it takes you longer to pay down your balance, which means they go on collecting for your debt even longer.

Apparently it makes them enough money that it's worth dealing with a few late payments now and then.

Wow! Time to celebrate - Just start firing your Glock in Yellowstone.

Lemme see - Dumped on Senator Bernie Sanders' capping amendment - Did not address the lowering of lines of credit - This can really hurt a credit score - So, what was the rush by Obama to have this bill signed by Memorial Day? He should have vetoed it and perhaps a better bill could have been patched together by the old Memorial Day of May 30. But, Wow, really Wow - Commence Firing. Not going to be long before the current crew at 1600 breaks out some new "Mission Accomplished" Thingees.

Obstructlicans!

Smartest thing I ever did was file for bankruptcy
under the old law. Yeah, I was irresponsible,
trying to raise a kid, send him to college and go to graduate school myself, but eff them. I shined on BOA, Sears and some others but was still left
with the school loans which I happily pay. Best thing we could do would be reinstate the old
bankruptcy law that J. Biden and others deprived us of.

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