New legislation is designed to cut back on unforeseen and unannounced fees and agreement changes. A full report can be found at Consumer Reports but here are the main points:
- Bills can be paid online or over the phone without incurring a processing fee.
- Customers must be over 60 days late on payments before their interest rate can be raised on balances; if the rate is raised, it will go back to the lower rate if customers make the minimum payment on time for six months in a row.
- Overlimit fees can’t be charged unless cardholders are told that the purchase will put them over their limit and they authorize it to go through anyway.
- If your card has more than one interest rate on balances, then payments must be applied to the highest interest rate first.
