There is some good news around the corner for the consumer of credit cards. The government have implemented a new set of rules that have a little more power than everyone was expecting, and at last credit card companies can be forced to pay out compensation if they don’t stick to them…
These rules are obviously in the wake of our country’s economical crisis and the rate in which lending has gone out of proportion. Well there will be no more of that with any luck, according to the government in any case. The first one of these rules is that the credit card company can no longer choose to pay off the cheapest of your debts with your minimum payment. This is a trick they have long been playing that allows them to only take your payment off the purchases that don’t generate a great amount of interest (thus revenue) for the credit card company. This will make it much easier for many of us credit card users and this change has been long awaited.
Another change is that you will have a longer period of time to reject interest rate changes on your credit card. If your credit card company writes to you to let you know they are increasing their rate, you now have up to 60 days to reject the rates and have your card cancelled. When your card is cancelled you will only pay off the balance at the original interest rate you had before the company’s increase.