Higher Interest Rates, Lower Lines Of Credit!
As if consumers do not have enough financial stress to worry about, the credit card companies are decreasing credit limits and increasing annual percentage rates. Due to the high number of people without jobs and suffering financial hardship, the credit card companies have had billions of dollars worth of losses. To attempt to fill in the gap, the card companies are making changes effecting card holders who are behind in payments in addition to card holders who have always paid their bills on time and have a perfect history. Credit cards have in the past always been issued to people with an interest rate and credit limit based on their specific risk to default.
With the economy in the state that is has been and many people with additional debt, consumers have been forced to use their credit limits, now faced with paying off balances with interest rates that have doubled or tripled.
According to msnbc.com we are entering a new “era” for credit cards. Previously as many of us experienced, credit card offers would appear daily in your mailbox, each with enormous credit limits and interest rates that were so competitive that it made applying for the card hard to resist. Many people who “couldn’t resist” are now paying for it with the increase in interest.
Possible changes in the near future…The new Credit Card Bill of Rights. The American Bankers association has stated that the new law will limit the amount of credit that is available and it will come attached to a higher price tag. In theory, consumers will have a better idea of long term costs and terms with the new law and will allow them to make more educated decisions.
LeadPile currently helps match consumers with unsecured debt such as credit card debt with debt settlement and debt consolidation companies, but what will change in the future of credit card debt if there is a “credit card bill of rights” that gets passed? Will it really affect anything? Who will feel it the most?