The world went upside down in the last two years. We have been fornate in our little corner of the world not to have been absolutely killed unlike other parts of the country. The one thing that does creep into our little financial world is credit cards.
Mellody Hobson on Good Morning America went over the new rules. It caught my attention because I can see these new rules helping people who have issues with their credit cards.
1. Your credit card statement now tells you how long it will take pay off your balance and how much interest you will pay if you only pay the minimum payment every month. This will be an eye opener for a lot of credit card users.
2. Instead of 15 days you will now how 21 days from the time you get your statement to pay your bill. That will give you a little more time to get that bill paid. Hopefully fewer people will get nailed with late payment charges with the extra time.
3. One area where credit card companies really stick you is the late fees and interest penalties. It happens you miss a payment or pay late and whamo you rate goes up significantly. Now the card company has you paying high rates for eternity. With the new law pay your card on time for the next 6 months and you will get your rate back. I think this is great because you are not punished forever for an error.
4. If your credit card company does decide to change their rate or policy they now must give you a 45 day notice. That extra time will give you a chance to make adjustments to your financial plan.
I have noticed the payment terms on my credit card statement. Truly an eye opener. One downer I have noticed is that the credit card I don’t use is now going to charge an annual fee to maintain my account because of the high cost of doing business. If that is the only negative I can live with that.
For more information on the new credit card rules visit this New Credit Card Rules: What You Need to Know.
