Lending Companies Up Their Standards

It has become more difficult to get lending companies and credit card issuers to approve your requests. They now offer their services to only those who have reached their standards. Those requests that have been filed by people who did not reach this standard will find it difficult to look for a credit card company who will approve their requests.

This is in light of the new credit card laws that have been passed just recently. Congress and President Barack Obama passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure act of 2009 that will protect consumers from unreasonable credit card companies and policies.

This law protects consumers from propaganda, gimmicks, scams and other ways in which a credit card company could get more money out of their customers. The provisions of this law are concentrated on the welfare of the consumers which may be the reason why credit card companies have become guarded and they now choose their clients more carefully.

Under this law, cardholders and consumers are protected against arbitrary interest rates increase which mean credit card companies can no longer increase their interest rates at will. This provision protects card companies to inform their clients of any interest rate increase by giving them 45 days notice before the interest rates are implemented. Consumers are also given the right to cancel their cards if there is an interest hike but they will have to pay off their balance at the existing interest rate.

The provisions of these laws also prevent the credit card companies make money at the cost of their consumers. Sometimes, credit card companies sell their packages by "tricking" their clients with confusing and misleading terms that would prevent them from making the right decisions.

Credit cardholders now have the option to set limits on the credit that they use. Having fixed credit will limit the spending of consumers. This will also ensure that they will only be spending what they can pay. Credit card companies will not be able to able to change this agreement.

These are just some of the provisions included in this law. Here we can see that congress has limited the actions of credit card companies. These limits do not allow the companies to abuse their power over their customer's payments and credits. Simply put, this law limits the money making capacity of the credit card companies.

Credit card companies know that they are already being closely monitored by the government. This leaves decision making to the consumers in the hopes that their experience will have taught them the real value of the privilege called credit cards.

One of the reasons why America's economy fell is because of the number of people who could not pay their credit card balances. Many of the American people bought things that they don't need with money that they do not have. So many did this so that when the time comes for them to pay, they did not have the means to pay their credit card companies. The effect is that many companies were forced to shut down and declare bankruptcy.

Doug Nicholas

Doug Nicholas, a financial consultant by profession with a Masters degree in International Business from Brown University, is also an ardent writer. Though he has a full time job at one of the companies listed on Wall Street, he does manage to squeeze in time to follow his passion. He puts his ideas to words in his articles related to finance and business.