Quick Credit Cards

Credit card rates and fees soar thanks in part to lost credit card debt.

Many consumers thought the interest rates and fees on their credit cards would go down or stay the same as a result of the new laws initiated in 2009, but the opposite has turned out to be the case.

In fact, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act is part of the reason lenders have hiked both rates and fees since it was enacted. According to a report in the Newark Star-Ledger, the laws, along with losses as a result of bad credit card debt being written off as uncollectable and drops in consumer spending, have led interest rates to skyrocket in the last year. Full Post…

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Visa recently conducted a survey that looked at how consumers felt about a new amendment in Wall Street reform that would allow some of the fees associated with processing debit cards to be passed from retailers to consumers.

According to the survey, an overwhelming 83 percent of respondents were opposed to the amendment’s requirement that debit cardholders would likely pay fees for owning and using their debit cards if the government was to establish the prices retailers pay for accepting the cards. Because of the strong opposition, it is likely that the amendment will not make it into the final version of the bill. (Market Watch)

News of credit card debt not as good as numbers show.

The latest reports from the Federal Reserve Board and the American Bankers Association made the state of the U.S. economy look great. The Fed said credit card debt had declined sharply, by billions of dollars for almost all of the last 20 months. The ABA said the rate at which consumers were unable to pay their credit card bills on time was also dwindling. There was, it seemed, finally some good news for the nation’s economic recovery.

But that simply isn’t the case, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. Full Post…