In July of 2010 there are going to be some changes in the laws dealing with how interest rates are handled with credit cards. This legislation is supposed to help the American people; however after going over them in depth it seems more like a public relations stunt than something to truly assist the American consumer.

These are some of the most drastic law changes that we have witnessed in years and they come as a result of over sixty thousand complaints to the Fed over the last couple of years. The complaints are over when card holders suddenly find themselves getting their interest rates greatly increased on their credit cards.

One of the largest changes is that consumers will no longer get their interest rates bumped up on existing balances when they go a day or two past due. Instead the interest rate hike would be put on future purchases not the existing balance like the creditors do today. However if the late payment goes past thirty days then the interest rate increase will be applied to the existing balance as well. Credit card companies say in their defense that the reason for hiking up the rate is because these debtors are a higher risk of non payment.

One more change made is that the creditors must give consumers a forty five day warning to the fact that the interest rate is going to be jacked up; they can no longer just bump it up overnight without warning the consumer.

Personally I think this is too little too late! How come we have to wait a year and a half for these changes to take effect? In addition if you still go over thirty days late than you would still see the high interest applied to your previous balance. And many consumers fall behind way further than one month, especially with today’ economy and employment market.

Plus these new laws will only take place on the cards issued from July 2010 and forward. So somebody who has a card under a different sign up agreement will still fall prey to the creditor’s abuses. People trapped with high credit card debts should seriously figure out how to get out of debt as soon as they can.

One of the more reasonable methods in which consumers have been accomplishing this is through debt settlement companies; a method in which the consumer will save a lot of money and become debt free within a couple of years. Getting you the correct credit card debt relief should be a top concern.

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