Congress Takes Aim At Deceptive Credit Card Lending

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It seems like every news source is talking about the recession, stock market crashes, bail outs, and America’s debt problem. One of the contributing factors could be credit card debt and deceptive credit-card industry practices.

It’s safe to say that you probably know someone that got in a little over their heads in credit card debt and they can’t seem to get out of it.

President Barack Obama wants to help. It was part of his campaign platform and on Thursday, top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers and other officials are scheduled to meet at the White House with top executives of credit card companies.

President Obama plans to crack down on deceptive credit-card industry practices and credit card abuses that have saddled U.S. consumers with huge debts and soaring interest rates.

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According to an interview on the NBC television talk show "Meet the Press", Summers said, "we need to do things to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addict people to it."

Thursday’s meeting comes as lawmakers in the Democratic-led Congress have vented concern that banks with big credit card operations charging high interest rates and confusing fees are the same institutions getting government bailouts from U.S. taxpayers who use these credit cards.

Both the House of Representatives and Senate drafted bills that would require clearer disclosure of terms and limit the ability of credit card issuers to raise interest rates and charge fees. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) is spearheading a Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act.

The Federal Reserved tightened rules on credit-card practices in December, but the proposed legislation would take that even further and create even greater transparency for consumers.

Written by Kim Phan at http://www.bestcreditcards.us

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