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Significant Provisions From The CARD Act of 2009
On February 22, 2010 the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 took effect. The CARD as it is more popularly known, is a thorough credit card reform legislation that is supposed to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan as well as for other purposes. Even with the current economic political climate this bill pass both the House of Representatives and Senate with high bi-partisan support.

This bill outlines several provisions which are for the main benefit of consumers. One of these important provisions is that consumers are now protected from arbitrary rate hikes. A card company must give a cardholder advance notice of 45 days before any interest rate increase. A cardholder then gets the choice to cancel their card and settle the balance at the previous lower rate. Cardholders have up to 3 billing cycles to make the most of this alternative. It is possible to remove a charge off on credit report.

Credit card issuers can no longer charge interest on debt that's paid within the grace period. This prevents the issue of double cycle billing. A credit card company is now also prohibited from assessing fees on any interest-only balances of a cardholder. If a cardholder pays their bill punctually, they have paid the principal for the billing cycle and they should not get any more fees on the interest portion of their balance.

If a consumer has been subject to a rate increase resulting from late payments or overdrafts, nevertheless they subsequently pay their bill by the due date for six consecutive months they are going to now get their previous lower interest rate restored. Creditors must also conduct an evaluation of the payment history of the customer every six months to check if a rate decrease is in order.

Cardholders should now be receiving their bills no less than 21 calendar days prior to the due date. Prior to the CARD act the requirement was just 14 days. If a payment is made before 5 p.m. EST on the due date it is considered timely. The due dates are now required to fall on the same day every month, with the delay to the next business day if it happens to fall on a weekend or legal banking holiday. If you need to remove repossession just remmeber it can be done.

Just about all terms and conditions of the card should now be incorporated on every statement in a minimum size font that improves readability. There should no longer be any fine print. Also, the information about how to make contact with your credit card company for information regarding your account will be included on every statement.

Some other ramifications from the bill includes offering consumers the option of having a fixed credit limit of their choosing that can't be exceeded along with a prevention of card companies form charging over-the-limit fees on a cardholder with a fixed credit limit. All credit card payments above the minimum payment will be applied to the debt with the highest interest rates first.

And there are definitely more positive provisions for consumers. The CARD act will protect consumers from a few of the arbitrary and unfair practices from credit card issuers that have happened previously.