WASHINGTON — Cash-strapped consumers can expect a special delivery this holiday season: sweeping new rules on credit cards.
Federal regulators will unveil final rules within the next several weeks to restrict credit card practices seen as unfair or deceptive.
Proposals would prohibit institutions from practices such as: increasing rates on an outstanding balance, except under limited circumstances; applying consumers’ payments over the minimum to maximize interest charges; and requiring a reasonable amount of time for consumers to make payments.
Consumers have spoken loudly in favor of curbing aggressive pricing.
They’ve posted tens of thousands of comments on the Federal Reserve’s website, complaining about predatory lenders.
“Please stop credit card companies from committing unfair billing practices. . . . Honest people need an honest chance,” wrote Laura White in a comment on the Fed’s site.
Industry sees less credit
Meanwhile, the credit card industry has reiterated concerns that the rules will damage its ability to manage risk, leading issuers to raise rates and cut available credit.
Meredith Whitney, a prominent analyst and managing director of Oppenheimer & Co., agrees that the rules would tamp access to credit, and wrote recently in the Financial Times that the rules will lead to the “severe unintended consequence” of pulling credit from consumers to the tune of $2 trillion, or 40 percent of unused credit lines.
“With so many Americans relying on their credit cards as a major source of liquidity, it would be equivalent to a major pay cut,” Whitney wrote.
Ken Clayton, managing director of the American Bankers Association’s card policy council, expects that the Fed will “move aggressively.”
“What you’re going to see is an unprecedented change in the way consumers deal with their card companies,” Clayton said. “In light of the current economic uncertainties, it’s important that all of us understand the full impact of these regulations on consumers and the economy before we can understand (whether they are) successful.”
30-day delinquency
One point of contention regards the provision that would prohibit issuers from increasing the interest rate on outstanding balances. The regulators’ interim proposal allows for exceptions to this rule, such as when a minimum payment is not received within 30 days of the due date.
The credit card industry has argued that the 30-day delinquency is too long, a position backed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the primary federal regulator of national banks, which account for almost 80 percent of U.S. credit card lending.
Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, said the rate hike provision will improve consumer protections.
“The ban on rate hikes on existing balances protects balances that are already extended,” Wu said. “If somebody is really risky, you should work with them on a payment plan, not put them further in the hole.”
It’s likely that the bulk of the interim proposals will make it into the final rules, observers say, given that Congress has lit a fire under regulators.
