Credit Cards: A Call for Reform
October 2006
Consumers Union, Consumer Action, the Consumer Federation of America and
U.S. PIRG have called for lawmakers and regulators to:
• Give consumers personalized minimum payment warnings on each monthly statement, calculating the length of time—in months and years— that it will take to pay off the debt, and the total interest costs that will accrue, if the cardholder makes only the requested minimum payment.
• Include new personalized disclosure requirements in all credit card offers, including the credit limit, penalty interest rates, method of calculating the minimum monthly payment, payment-related fees, the impact of two cycle billing and universal default terms, in the “Schumer box” disclosure table in all cardholder agreements.
• Ban “elastic” contract terms that allow issuers to change terms for any reason, including no reason.
For more, click here (PDF format).