Credit Cards: Finally a Little Good News for The Little Guy
While most people were watching the debate over a $700 billion bailout for the big bankers on Wall Street, Main Street scored a victory in the House of Representatives.
Thanks to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, the House voted for the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights on Tuesday, by a 312-112 margin. The bill would make it a lot easier for the humble consumer to get a fair deal from the credit card companies. It would eliminate a variety of tricks and traps of the credit card business, like retroactive interest rate hikes.
The Maloney bill still has to pass the Senate, and President Bush would have to agree to sign it. But whatever the bill’s fate — and if it doesn’t succeed this year, it should have an even better chance next year — the lopsided vote sends a message to the Federal Reserve, which is considering tough new rules for credit card issuers by the end of the year.
The Fed itself has described the credit card companies’ bag of tricks as “deceptive”and “anti-competitive.”
[...]There was no excuse for voting against the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights — though 112 members of the House did. To see how your Representative voted, look here.
By Wednesday, consumer groups had begun making a pitch to the Senate to add the credit cardholders bill of rights to their version of the big bailout package. It should.
If Congress is giving a huge bailout to the big bankers, it should offer these reasonable protections to their bruised customers.
