Word: crediteers
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...industry, naturally, is crying foul. Having the flexibility to change interest rates and charge all sorts of fees lets card issuers free up more credit for more people, they argue; folks with lower prospects for repayment pay higher interest rates, while good, creditworthy customers don't have to pay as much. Plus, they say, now is exactly the wrong time to relegislate the lending process. Owing to the credit crunch and soaring default rates, card issuers are already reeling in credit limits and accepting fewer new applications. "There are two ways of managing risk - for a particular borrower and across...
...That sort of thinking, while valid, misses the larger picture. If one brackets the equally legitimate notion that Americans probably should have less access to credit-card borrowing and simply dissects the bill before Congress, one starts to see that the proposed changes aren't really about dictating what a card company can or can't charge borrowers. There's a way to do that: impose interest-rate caps, as many states' usury laws do. That isn't what Congress is on track to do. Instead, the new law, which would build on regulations issued by the Federal Reserve...
...That goal is easily seen in the legislation's key feature: limitations on how card companies treat customers' existing balances. When you sign up for a credit card, you agree to pay a certain interest rate on the balance you carry - you enter into a legal agreement to that end - but historically, your card company has been able to change that rate for all sorts of reasons. Maybe you charge a greater chunk of your credit limit than normal. Maybe you're late on a payment to some other company. In recent years, the difference between the interest rate folks...
...Tellingly, the proposed law doesn't try to tweak those figures. If you go from being a good credit risk to a bad one, credit-card companies can still take steps to make sure they continue to be adequately compensated. When you go to buy new things, they can charge you 30% a year if they want to. The thing they wouldn't be allowed to do under the new law is to go back and change the terms of your original agreement - that is, hike your interest rate on existing balances - except in very few situations, such as your...
...approach therefore is not to smack down credit-card companies for high interest rates but rather to hold everyone to the original agreement about how much credit will cost. "Virtually no other contract in this country allows a business to change the terms of an agreement once a purchase has been made," says Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America. "That's the main issue." (One Senator suggested an interest-rate cap, but that was shot down...