Card Companies

Federal regulators have finally adopted new rules for the credit card industry - policies designed to keep people from getting hammered by soaring interest-rate increases on existing accounts. But the rules don't go into effect until July 2010, and that's much too long to wait. The new Congress and the Obama administration should find a way to expedite the changes, giving banks and other lending companies some time to comply - but not a year and a half. That's especially true since there are legitimate concerns that credit card companies and banks may impose higher rates and fees on many customers to make up for their losses in the sluggish mortgage market.

I last wrote about America's abysmal savings rate. Now, the flip side: our even more crippling credit card debt situation. According to a recent study, in 2008 more than 91 million U.S. households, or 78 percent, held at least one credit card, with an average of 5.4 cards per household. Total credit debt as of December 2008 is $973 billion, with a household average of $8,329. Almost 90 percent of that outstanding debt is held by 10 creditors; Chase, Bank of America, Citi, American Express and Capital One (the company with those zany commercials)

With more than 600 million credit cards in circulation %o worldwide, credit card fraud has hit record levels.The industry lost more than $1.5 billion to fraud last year, about 50 percent of it in the United States, says MasterCard International.Almost half the fraud was traced to lost or stolen cards, but telephone-related scams also loomed large. In fact, about one in three Americans has fallen prey to an illegal phone scam, according to a survey by Consumer Protection Network.you have been victimized, report the incident as quickly as possible.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been accepting consumer complaints about credit cards for close to a year. Today, the agency made a database of those complaints available online. You can see the names of the card issuers griped about, the gist of the complaint and company's response and the consumer's zip code. The CFPB says it has received 16,840 credit card complaints, with the most common complaint involving billing disputes. The agency sent 84 percent of those complaints to the card issuers, while the rest went to other regulators or were incomplete.

NEW YORK -- Democrats have taken control of Congress at a time when credit card companies and banks are up to their monthly statements in profits, thanks to the sky-high interest rates and penalty fees paid by the increasing number of Americans turning to credit just to make ends meet. Although Democratic legislators have pushed to increase the federal minimum wage and lower student-loan interest rates in an effort to alleviate the financial burden on the middle class, it should be remembered that both Republicans and Democrats helped American families get in this predicament.

My wife and I are both 68 and retired. We live in a three-bedroom house with no mortgage. We both agree that shoveling the snow in the winter and taking care of the yard the rest of the year might soon become too much for us to handle. We believe we would be better off in an apartment. My wife thinks we should sell the house, but I think we should rent it out. My thinking is that if we sell it and use the money we get from the sale to pay our rent, we will eventually run out of money. If we keep the house and rent it out, we will always have the rent we receive to pay the rent for our apartment.

The Federal Reserve Board was poised today to pass unprecedented credit-card reform, which ultimately could reduce the amount that consumers pay in fees and interest. The Fed proposed regulations in May and has received more than 62,000 public comments since then. The revised regulations will be released later today, when the Fed takes them up for a vote, although they are expected to be similar to what was proposed earlier. If the Fed moves ahead with the proposal, changes expected for the credit-card industry include: * Card issuers won't be able to raise rates on outstanding balances unless it is a variable-rate card, a promotional rate is lost or expired, or a payment is more than 30 days late.

Don't let credit-card debt bum you out. Surf credit cards as if you're riding a great wave and you'll see that balance drop. Just remember: One slip and wipeout! Rate-surfing is an effective but risky way to eliminate credit-card debt. Surfing refers to transferring card balances from one low introductory rate to another to save on interest expense. The key is to use the lower rates to pay less interest and more on the principal until you eliminate the debt entirely. And then, long term, you need to stay debt-free by charging only what you can afford to pay off immediately, financial experts say. The danger of surfing arises when you make a late payment or let the introductory period expire without surfing to another card.

To expand their business, the nation's credit card companies are enticing consumers to use the cards for everyday expenses.MasterCard, for instance, is accepted at 500 movie theaters nationwide and has a card-acceptance program under way with the New York and New Jersey Port Authority for payment of airport parking fees.Nationally, credit cards are accepted at some fast-food outlets such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King. And cards are being tested among taxi services in Denver and Los Angeles.

BGE's restructuring, utility deregulation are separate 0) mattersThomas C. Shaner of the Alliance for Customer Choice of Electrical Suppliers questions my view on the significance of a bill that would have amended an antiquated law banning Maryland utilities from forming holding companies ("Refusal to compete cost BGE its chance for holding company," May 24).The bill and electric restructuring are two separate issues that should be examined on their individual merits. By adding restructuring amendments to the bill in the last legislativesession, lawmakers demonstrated a disregard for a simple but pressing business matter and nearly compromised the complex electric restructuring process.