Credit Card Bill of Rights Approved by Senate

5/19/2009

posted by N. Sioris

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Today the Senate passed a consumers' credit card "bill of rights" measure that will curb fees and limit surprise changes to the agreed upon terms, by credit card issuers. The legislation however, will not cap interest rates, which some lawmakers had pushed for.

The House passed a similar measure last month. The Senate version will go back to the House where it is expected to get final approval before going to President Obama. The President is expected to sign off on the legislation before Memorial Day, next Monday.

Not surprising, the banks opposed the measure and The American Bankers Association lobbied hard against its' passage, but in the end they did not succeed in thwarting the bill.

If the measure is enacted into law, the credit card industry will have nine months to change the way it conducts business, (which from my perspective, is way too long to wait for this long overdue legislation.) It will be interesting to see what kind of havoc these card issuers wreak on the public between now and nine months from now.

Here is a news clip from CNBC describing the legislation: