Credit Card Debt Law

The trend recently has been for credit card companies to reward consumers for using plastic at the pump with discounts through gas rewards. Now, the Connecticut government may be instituting a different kind of reward - for using cash.
Connecticut is considering legislation to allow gas stations to give discounts to consumers paying cash - [...]

An AP-AOL poll suggests that the need for a good credit report isn’t the only reason that one should stay on top of their financial situation. Americans with credit card debt are more likely to report health problems such as ulcers, severe depression, and heart attacks.
Research has suggested that chronic stress can [...]

Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama came out swinging today on the issue of credit cards and predatory lending. Obama criticized Republican Candidate John McCain for siding with the credit card companies and called for measures to end deceptive credit card practices. Obama supports a Credit Card Bill of Rights and wants to implement [...]

The largest class action settlement in US history will give six months of free credit monitoring by TransUnion to more than 160 million Americans, if they choose.  Read more in the Los Angeles Times.

The scope of governmental inquiry into credit card practices continues to widen.  CompuCredit (and the two banks issuing the credit cards they marketed) have been charged by the Federal Trade Commission and the FDIC with deceptive credit card marketing.  The marketing failed to adequately disclose upfront fees associated with the credit cards, which were primarily [...]

CNBC reported last week that April credit card borrowing rose just ~ $300 million, the smallest monthly increase in borrowing since May 2005.

Suze Orman weighed in this weekend on the proposed credit card reforms of Congress and the Federal Reserve, calling them “better late than never.” Orman explains some of the key measures in both the Federal Reserve protections and the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, as well as makes a few additional suggestions. [...]

Discover Financial spent $160,000 in the first quarter lobbying against credit card reform proposals, reported Forbes.

A senior attorney from Consumers Union has a 4 minute interview/video segment online laying out the relevant details of credit card reform proposals.  I haven’t yet checked out the segment (available here), but I thought I would pass it on and bookmark it to view later.

Although many are concerned that high credit card debt levels will spark a new consumer debt crisis (read more in this CNBC article), American Express (the largest credit card lender in 2007 by total purchases and cash advances) announced that it expects its earnings per share to grow 4 to 6 percent on the strength [...]