Viddler

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/02/credit_card_report.html

“At a time when American people are being asked to come to the rescue of financial services all over the country […] how can we say ‘we know that [credit card] practices are unfair, but you must wait a year to fix them?’” asked Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) at a Center for American Progress Action Fund event Wednesday morning.

At the event, CAPAF Executive Vice President Sarah Wartell presented a new report by Tim Westrich, “Putting Credit Card Debt on Notice,” which she said “offers technological solutions to help customers better manage their debt in the face of increasingly volatile market conditions.” Wartell said that by using technology such as text messaging—or a similarly rapid electronic method—a credit card issuer could provide consumers with helpful information at the moment he or she needs it most. The message, according to Westrich’s report, could provide clear information—including both the event, such as the due date, and the consequence for missing it—a late fee and an increase to the penalty rate.

Wartell said that this new method of giving better information should be done in addition to, not as a substitute for, efforts by Rep. Maloney to eliminate the worse problems in the credit card market through legislation. “In conjunction with legislation, these technologies could help stem abuses in the credit card industry,” said Maloney.

In December of last year, the Federal Reserve Board finalized regulations that mandated a number of reforms in the credit card industry. These reforms, however, are not slated to take effect until July 2010. Rep. Maloney has introduced a bill—the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act—that moves up the starting date for many of these protections to three months after the bill is signed. These prot