The new credit card laws start to kick in today, February 22. You can now expect to see the potential bad news associated with your account on every statement.
For example, the credit card companies must now tell you the awful truth of how much interest you will pay and how long it will take you to pay off your balance if you only make the minimum payment every month.
The truth that you may still be able to hide from and deny but the credit card companies must disclose to you is that if you only make the minimum payment every month you will end up paying substantially more interest and it will take you much longer to pay off your balance.
Now the credit card companies will have to be upfront and show you the math. They will have to disclose how many months and how much interest you will pay to reduce your balance to zero if you only make the minimum payment but also how much you would need to pay and how much interest you would save if you were to pay off the balance within the reasonable time period of 36 months.
Your credit card statement should also be easier to understand with all fees and interest charges highlighted. Also all information should be presented in an easily understood format with a ?legible font size? or in other words, no more ?fine print?.
Your statement should also include a toll-free number that you can call for help or counseling.
Some of these changes will start showing up immediately and all of them must be completely implemented by July 2010.
For more information about other changes coming with CARD, see 724credits explanations of CARD from the past few months.
