All Posts Tagged With: "Credit card issuers"

The Federal Reserve and banking regulators are cracking down on the credit card industry, prohibiting practices such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on outstanding balances.

The so-called crack down is said to be in an effort to ban an array of unfair and even predatory practices. Some card issuers have jacked up rates on credit cards to over 30% to cover their losses in other areas such as non-performing subprime mortgages.

Critics say the whole effort is political as regulators and banks engage in a CYA campaign and in any case it is too little too late to help struggling consumers. Observers say there are simply too many banking industry sponsored loopholes to allow the reform to be effective, and only a flood of lawsuits and class actions by outraged consumers can punish an industry running amuck.