As you may (and certainly should) know, President Obama is pushing for the passage of new restrictions on credit card issuers.
The reforms sound good and may pass in spite of the powerful banking lobbyists, but unfortunately the new regulations aren’t supposed to take effect for nearly a year.
I’ve got a great idea, why not apply the same standards to regulating the credit card bandits that they apply to the taxpayers who recently bailed them out.
By that I mean, why not make the new regulations retroactive.
Credit card companies arbitrarily increase interest rates even on existing balances which seems a lot like making new rules retroactively apply to consumers.
Wouldn’t it be fair to do the same thing to them that they’ve been doing to us for years?
Why not call your representative and let him or her know what you think?
Start by emailing Chris Dodd, Senator for Connecticut, who is pushing for a new credit card bill – if you agree with me, let him know you think he is doing a good job but that the new rules should be retroactive.
“Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today [Feb 11, 2009] re-introduced The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (“the Credit CARD Act”), legislation to better protect consumers from confusing, misleading and predatory practices by credit card companies.”
http://dodd.senate.gov/?q=node/4771
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd
448 Russell Building | Washington D.C., 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2823 | Fax: (202) 224-1083
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3130
Then Click on “Express an opinion.”
The bill is cosponsored by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Jon Tester (D-MT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), John Kerry (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Robert Casey (D-PA).
Be sure you let all of them know how you feel also and get your friends to do the same.
Find Senator’s names and office addresses here:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
