Credit Card Companies Want to Hurt You (More) in 2010

By Sherrie Gulmahamad on January 5th, 2010

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Ladies, before you go on a weird post-holidays personal shopping spree (“I spent a month shopping for others, now it’s MY turn” kind of thing), you need to stop and pay attention to the Credit Card Act of 2009, a piece of new reform going into effect this February. The legislation was created to protect the consumer against soaring credit card fees and to “establish fair and transparent practices” for users. And, of course, the credit card industry LOATHES this, and stands to lose approximately seven billion dollars in revenue.

My name is Bank of America and I’m hungry! I have time to mess up your finances before February too! So now what?

There are a few simple ways the banks and CC companies plan on stealing your proverbial pot of gold. They can:

- Change fixed-rate credit cards to variable rate credit cards. Hell, you can even sign up at a sweet promotional interest rate only to watch it skyrocket up to 10% over your original rate. Go on, close the credit card and risk hurting your credit score!

- Raise your annual fees because no amount of money is enough for these people. Really.

- Charge you for NOT going on reckless shopping sprees! Yes, INACTIVITY fees.

- Penalize you for being responsible and paying OFF your credit card balance! Wha?

There are things you can do to protect yourself, the simplest and most obvious being to stay aware of what your credit card company is doing. Call them up, ask if there are any changes in your account for this year. Ask specifically about the four items above. Consider closing your account if you do have healthy credit and switching over to a simpler program with fewer restrictions that simply gives you CASH BACK for your using their service.

Oh, you could also listen to Suze Orman. She’s a smarty.