Comments on: What you Need to Know About the Credit Card Act

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:44:00 +0000

The current state of the economy seems to be directly connected to what the major banks and brokerages have engaged in the past few years. Sadly, there are many victims out there the new law is not really helping.
The amount of personal debt is crushing the recovery. Unemployment will be a thorn in our side for a while.

My own finances suck do to unemployment issues.

I am finally employed again. My financial issues are directly related to this credit card thing. When it come to deciding whether to eat or not…. the credit card comes out. Somewhere along the line the CC companies came up with “universal default”. Just a fancy way to say they can do what they want anytime they want. So a guy like me, barely scraping by, gets hit across the board with interest increases to 30+ percent because I was late on ONE payment. Universal default allowed the CC companies to ALL raise my rates even if I was not late to ALL of them.

So now I am working. But was stuck with those interest rates.

I have to say there are many scams out there. Settlement companies are all over TV with claims of reducing what my balances if I will just pay them 1000.00 or so up front… On a credit card of course. What a joke, then I find out they are just sticking my payments in their pocket till I am so late my credit will be destroyed. Then if I actually get to “settle” I will owe taxes on the amount I was “forgiven”. HELLO!! I don’t have the money, how one earth am I going to pay the IRS… You just destroyed my credit, I can’t pay taxes with a credit card now…

Fortunately, I did not attempt a settlement. That is just way to scary.

I did hook up with these guys at Accelerated. A written guarantee, A+ BBB rating etc. Good folks.

And they don’t beat you up on the phone. Hard to believe, but they are legit.
Here is a link http://www.debtsynergy.com/index.html

By: Daddy Paul

Daddy Paul — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:16:56 +0000

Which of these changes will have the biggest impact on you?
Less rewards. The credit card companies are cutting back.

By: SImon

SImon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:00:57 +0000

@Jessica – Agreed, good to have the policy for Under 21’s.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:14:22 +0000

Not that it affects me now, but I’m grateful that policies regarding Card availability to Minors/Under 21 have been put in place. I think I would have been in a different place than where I’m at now if that was around 5 years ago. I like the changes..Hoorah!

By: Shaun

Shaun — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:24:55 +0000

If you pay late you should pay the interest! It’s like the analogy going to parking fines, if you park in the wrong spot and you get a ticket, live with it.

By: Credit Card Chaser

Credit Card Chaser — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:23:46 +0000

Also check out this 5,000 word guide to the CARD Act with a short “In a Nutshell” synopsis of each major change: http://www.creditcardchaser.com/credit-card-act-of-2009/

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:25:30 +0000

Definitely the interest rate getting jacked up for late payments. It really stinks the most when your payment is only a few days late and your interest rate gets bumped up permanently. I’m glad they’ve changed that.

By: Allison

Allison — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:58:38 +0000

Thanks for the useful rundown! Right before the CARD Act went into effect, we did an article on what to do before the credit card act went into effect, so it's very useful to line this up to see what to do now that it has. Interesting to line them up next to each other. Thanks!