Comments on: Credit Card Reform Act of 2008 – Congress to the Rescue

By: Louise Walker

Louise Walker — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:56:22 +0000

I was charged a $25.00 late fee because my payment was received on July 15th and the due date was July 14th. Is this legal under the new reform?

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:48:46 +0000

Leslie, have you tried talking to a representative with your credit card company to see if they will lower the rate?

By: leslie tetrault

leslie tetrault — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:44:26 +0000

I do not intend to pay this and hope more people will do the same

By: leslie tetrault

leslie tetrault — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:30:09 +0000

I was 4 days late making my payment and now they are trying to charge me 29.99% on my balance. I am not going to pay

By: Penny Hayes

Penny Hayes — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:51:16 +0000

What needs to change is penalizing consumers if they cancel a credit card. Right now if you cancel a card your FICO score is negatively affected. this should stop. We need reform in this crucial area now.

By: Gwen England

Gwen England — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:38:52 +0000

I think ccc are a rip off. When i first got my card it was 5% for a few months then it was agreed to go to 9%. When i sent my payment this month it was at 18.99% and its going up again. i’m going to pay mine off and cancel it real soon. I don’t owe them that much anymore,thank god.

By: Mary K

Mary K — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:11:05 +0000

It seems to me that most everyone here is missing the point. The majority of the posts have spoken of credit card debt that was unavoidable, due to some financial crisis. My question is: where was your money going before the crisis.

“Living within your means” does not mean spending every penny that you make. It means spending LESS that you make and putting as much as possible aside every month to create that “nest egg” that will see you through the hard times. This means, shopping sales or, heaven forbid, buying things second hand (yes, it is possible to get quality second hand), spending less on food (eating out and pre-processed food are a lot more expensive than you think when compared with cooking from scratch), clothing, accessories, furniture, etc. For example, even with 3 adult males and myself in the house, I can still feed us all for under $300 a month. It is possible, and it really doesn’t take that much time.

Even as college students, we (my husband and I) have never once had to pay interest on our credit cards. I could not even tell you what our interest rates are. Why? Because we do not use our credit cards unless we have the money in our accounts to pay for what we am buying (a novel concept, I know). We don’t usually buy things we don’t need and, when we do decide to make such purchases, we discus whether the cost of these item are worth the time we would have to work to pay for them (the answer is usually “no”).

To be honest, the responses to the article demonstrate the typical American lack of responsibility. What you need to understand is that the banks and credit card companies are BUSINESSES. They will do what they have to to make their profits (if you don’t like this concept, use a credit union; they usually offer the same services and are more customer friendly). If you want to hang the banks for “ruining the American economy”, you will have to get a lot of extra nooses for the non-baking companies that also participate in similar acts (toss in one for the government, as well).

If you don’t want to be at the mercies of the Big Bad Credit Card Company, don’t put your self on the sacrificial alter. Don’t take a credit card so that you can have a little extra money. I you need a credit card to build credit, READ THE FINE PRINT. Discuss it with your banker. If they reserve the right to alter the contract, they probably will so be prepared. Save before the emergency. But, please, spare me the sob story about how these companies have done you wrong. I rather cliche…

By: billtill

billtill — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:33:34 +0000

All this bill will do is foster an environment of less responsibility for those that are already irresponsible. If the government keeps holding the hand of everyone who gets themselves into a predicament and tells them that it is not their fault they will never learn anything.

Tough love. Learn it and live it, unless you want to live like Venezuela, or Russia, or North Korea.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:50:33 +0000

Now the credit card industry is feeling the wrath of Congress who have suddenly discovered, after years of happily taking corporate contributions, that perhaps the consumers – i.e. disgruntled voters – may actually be worth listening to. Alas, congress and the current administration have yet again gone too far and many prudent, hard working and financially careful Americans (like me) will end up paying the price for the misspending of others.

By: jmr

jmr — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:19:20 +0000

Lets see. Since I am responsible, pay my credit card debt, can afford to do so and have paid religiously, never missing a payment, I should have my 9.9% fixed rate card unilaterally raised to a variable rate of 17.9%? And oh, by the way, the card companies tell you that you can opt out and pay off under the old terms, which is fine, but what they don’t tell you is, that doing so can damage your credit. And oh, by the way, the card companies also don’t tell you that by unilaterally raising your rates they can damage your credit rating. Either way you loose. Don’t use credit cards? Try making a major purchase without a credit history,