Consumers Clamoring For Earlier Credit CARD Act Activation

Rising interest rates, rising fees, new fees, credit card limit cuts and many other changes in their credit cards have credit card holders clamoring for the changes promised by the Credit CARD (Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure) Act to activate sooner.

The Credit CARD Act is a new set of legislation created by Congress and signed into law by the President last May of this year. The Act aims to level the playing field for credit card holders by limiting predatory and unfair practices being done by credit card companies. Full activation of the Act was scheduled for February of 2010.

Credit card companies see the Credit CARD Act as a threat to their profitability. They predict that, once the Act goes live, they will no longer be as profitable as they used to be in the past. Many of their past practices will no longer be allowed under the new Act. They are therefore changing the credit card agreements of their customers now to ensure that they stay profitable even with the Credit CARD Act in place.

Credit card holders are getting angry with credit card companies over their recent actions, however and are clamoring for the Credit CARD Act to be activated earlier.

According to a survey by Credit.com, 45% of consumers said that their credit card issuer made changes in their credit card agreements such as increasing fees, interest rate hikes, cutting available credit and increasing the minimum payment due rate.

Adam Levin, chairman of consumer oriented website, Credit.com said that consumer advocates found hope when the Credit CARD Act was signed into law this May that credit card companies would go easier on consumers but the opposite happened instead. Considering the large number of people affected by what the credit card companies are doing, this is probably one of the major reasons why 56% of respondents in the survey were of the opinion that the activation of the Credit CARD Act be moved to an earlier date. Levin said, “They’re doing what they do and they’re going to continue to do what they do, until their ability to do what they do is curtailed”.

At the moment, the U.S. Congress is considering an earlier date for the Act’s activation, which is on December 1 of 2009 instead of February 22 of 2010. The House Financial Services Committee is now considering a bill changing the activation date of the Credit CARD Act and voting for the bill will be in the next few days.