The House on Tuesday passed the Credit Card Holder's Bill of Rights. It's a legislation that consumer activists have been working on for years, and now, want tied to any bailout for Wall Street and the banking industry.
When using your credit card, you really don't have any way of knowing how much money you'll be paying in interest.
Credit card companies are allowed to change rates as they please and that is why the Credit Card Holder's Bill of Rights easily passed through the house Tuesday.
"We know the American public is fed up with the behavior of banks, including credit card practices," says Gail Hillebrand, Consumer Union.
The credit card bill of rights would stop retroactive rate increases, double cycle billing and due date gimmicks that trick you into paying late.
"The Senate ought to put the credit card reform package into the bailout. If they can take just a week to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money, they ought to be able to get credit card reform done in that same short period of time," says Hillebrand.
Bankers are fighting this and the bill still has a long way to go. The Senate must pass it and the President must sign it. That may seem unlikely, but consumer activists say two weeks ago, the nationalization and bailout of our financial services industry seemed farfetched too.
