My post yesterday about Congressional efforts to extend unemployment led me to a rather off-the-cuff comment about how efforts to reform unemployment have left those homeowners without a job to face the brutal foreclosure system. And the unemployed homeowners aren’t able to qualify for programs to modify their mortgages because they don’t have sufficient [...]

With a vote of 361-64, the House of Representatives approved the credit card legislation which passed the Senate yesterday. The bill is expected to be signed by President Obama on Friday, and will go into effect 9 months later.

We are reaching the final stages of a process which was kick started last May by the Federal Reserve when they solicited comments from credit cardholders and credit card companies about potential regulatory changes in the industry. After cardholders submitted a massive number of comments complaining about the unfair and misleading practices of the industry, the Federal Reserve adopted credit card regulations which were to go into effect in July 2010. Due in part to the economic downturn and the bailout of our financial institutions by the government, the House and Senate are in agreement that additional measures to protect consumers from the credit card industry were needed.

Yesterday, when discussing the Senate’s credit card legislation, I was skeptical that the bill had done enough to level the balance of power between financial institutions and banks when it came to issues of credit card and debt contract terms and fees.

Today, newspapers are reporting that President Obama’s administration is actively discussing the creation of a financial products regulator to act as a financial consumer protection agency related to mortgages, mutual funds, and credit cards.

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.

If you’ve picked up a newspaper over the past few days, you’ve no doubt heard that new credit card rules are being fast tracked through the Federal Government and that President Obama hopes to sign a bill changing the practices of the credit card industry by Memorial Day.

Reform of the credit card industry is long overdue, but I now hope that the final bill isn’t called the credit card bill of rights. I’ve liked the idea of a set of basic principles which everyone can agree should govern interactions between consumers since I first heard the name. However, as the Senate bill is debated, and the House bill already passed, I don’t think that the legislation holds a candle to its predecessor - the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. So I decided to come up with the 10 principles that I would use to craft credit card and debt reform.

In other words, here’s my first crack at a real credit card bill of rights:

On Saturday (May 9), President Obama demanded that Congress send him a bill reforming the practices of the credit card industry before Memorial Day. Now, there’s word of a compromise bill between Senators Dodd and Shelby that some speculate could garner enough votes in Congress to become law.

How will this new bill impact your credit card debt? Will it lower your interest rates?

Read my thoughts about the events of the past week in this post, and then stay tuned for more information here at Credit Card Debt Law as the debate continues.

Every newspaper in the country will be running an article on President Obama’s first 100 days in office. They’ll likely say that he’s set forth grand plans and presented a confident voice in the face of the nation’s economic problems, but has fallen far short of the example set by FDR. After a few days of being utterly uninspired about the thought of writing an article about what President Obama has and has not done in the arena of credit cards and credit card debt, real estate and foreclosures, as well as troubled assets and the banks, I’ve decided that I’m just not all that interested in recapping the first 100 days.

So here’s my piece about why you shouldn’t care about the first 100 days either.

Today, April 26, 2009 is Debt Day. It marks the beginning of a remarkable period for the federal government and the United States of America; one that will last until September 30. It’s the amount of time in its fiscal year that the federal government is deficit spending.

Haven’t heard of Debt Day before? Then you had better read the rest of this post to find out why an April Debt Day isn’t anything to be celebrating.

As President Obama’s first 100 days draw to a close, he has finally stepped up to the plate on his campaign promises of government-led credit card reform. On Thursday, the President and advisors met with credit card executives to discuss additional consumer protections for credit cardholders. In the meeting, Obama told credit card industry representatives that he intends to sign a law providing increased consumer protection to consumers holding credit cards. Following the meeting, he called for an end to deceptive practices and set forth three core principles for credit card reform, as well as introduced the idea of national, plain vanilla, credit card terms.

President Obama will meet with credit card company executives on Thursday at the White House. The meeting follows increased scrutiny of the banks practices of increasing interest rates and decreasing credit limits for its credit card customers despite receiving billions of dollars in assistance from the government and the ability to borrow money at a near zero percent interest rate because of the Federal Reserve.

We’ll have more coverage of the meeting as it approaches. It is expected that President Obama will condemn the recent industry practices and oppose efforts by the credit card industry to weaken the credit card reform initiatives under Congressional consideration.