New Credit Card Laws
When you are trying to repair your finances, it’s important to pay your credit card bills on time, or they can hit you with huge fees.
In the past, many credit card companies deliberately made it difficult for customers to pay their bills on time. Thanks to a new bill that recently became law, credit card companies have some new responsibilities.
These include:
Credit card companies used to be able to change their payment due date every month, making it much more difficult to pay on time. Now credit card companies are required to have the payment due date on the same day every month.
Credit card companies used to send their monthly statements less than 21 days before the payment was due.
Now they are required to mail their monthly statements at least 21 days before the payment is due.
Credit card companies used to charge a stiff fee every single time people went over their credit limit.
Now, credit card holders will need to opt-in to give permission to the credit card company to process transactions that go over the credit card limit.
Note: It is not a good idea to do this. If you are charging over the amount of your credit card limit, you’re spending too much.
In the past, credit card companies told people how much their minimum payment was, but not how long it would take to ever pay off their balance if they only pay the minimum payment every month. Why? Because it benefits the credit card companies to have people only pay off the minimum payment every month.
Now, they are required to print on their bills how long it will take to pay off the balance in full if you only make the minimum monthly payment.
Be sure to read that every month and let it be incentive to you to do whatever it takes to pay off MORE than the minimum monthly payment. You will end up giving a lot less money to the credit card companies and keeping a lot more for yourself.