A new online tool from Chase is garnering a fair amount of media attention recently. Known as Blueprint, it is part of a broad media campaign hoping to convince you that J.P. Morgan Chase wants to help you manage your finances (as well as rack up interest rate and fee charges!).
Chase Blueprint offers certain [...]

The Senate adopted new legislation aimed at curtailing the practices of the credit card industry today (May 19th) by a vote of 90-5.

The Senate and House will now look to reconcile the differences between the Senate’s credit card bill and the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, which was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year. This is expected to occur fairly quickly, as I have seen projections that President Obama’s Memorial Day deadline for a bill to sign may be met.

The headlines in the newspaper and margin of victory in the Senate suggest that the tide has swung against the credit card lobby … but has it really? Continue reading for more information about the contents of the legislation and what it means for your credit card bill in the future.

The federal government managed to put consumer protection for credit card holders back on their radar screen for a moment this past week despite their unwavering focus on the AIG bonus payments and preparing for the Special Olympics.

President Barack Obama reaffirmed his belief in the need for consumer protection related to credit cards in response to a question at a California town hall meeting this past Wednesday. Earlier, I had wondered about the removal of this portion of his agenda in the transition from his campaign website to the government website. Unfortunately, from what I can gather, it wasn’t a ringing endorsement for new debt protections. In his answer, President Obama said that he “generally” supports a credit card bill of rights. But the few news stories that I can find about the statement don’t go into any more depth on the issue.

JP Morgan Chase took action recently to cut off the supply of low cost credit it offered to consumers through promotional balance transfer rates.  I’m sure that we all remember the good old days when banks offered a low interest rate balance transfer at a fixed rate for the life of the balance of the [...]

The Federal Reserve Board released the January 2009 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices.  The survey was distributed at the end of December 2008 and covers the period between October and December 2008.  For those interested in the full report, you can find it here.   The prior report was distributed to survey [...]

If you go back a few years and start reading articles on how to act responsibly with your credit, you’ll see similar advice as what you see today:

Pay off your card every month.

If you carry a balance, make additional payments on the credit card with the highest interest rate first.

Make more than the minimum payment [...]

Back in May when Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve proposed changes to rules related to credit cards, they did so under the theory that “improved disclosures alone cannot solve all of the problems consumers face in trying to manage their credit card accounts.”  Others in favor of credit card reform argued in support that [...]

In a poll conducted in April and May of 2008, American consumers ranked American Express, the fourth largest American credit card issuer, highest in consumer satisfaction for the second year in a row according to J.D. Power and Associates.
While it may be a bit early to start placing bets on the outcome of the J.D. [...]

The New York Times reported that credit card offers sent via the mail in the second quarter of 2008 are down about 14 percent over the second quarter of 2007.  Does this mean that we’ll be free from their junk mail in our mailbox anytime soon?  That seems unlikely.  They still sent out an amazing [...]

The United States isn’t the only country where consumers are having difficulty with credit card debt and rising expenses.  I previously discussed the problem with credit card debt in Great Britain.  And numerous news stories have focused on the growing problems with credit card debt in other countries in the world.
Australians owe a national record [...]