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Protecting consumers was the core focus on creating and implementing the new credit card law.  Though advocates for consumer rights are still seeking for much more protective regulations and say that the new law is insufficient or might even bring about more burden to people who seek to get credit cards or people who are already credit card holders.

Presently, borrowers who are considered “risky” suffer the most because of the high interest rates and fees being slapped on them.  Lenders reasons for doing this is that risky customers are the ones who have a higher probability to default on their loans at an earlier stage and raising their interest rates and fees are their tactic to get the most out of their customer.  Several restrictions against this type of practice are also incorporated in the new law but there are also some resurrected regulations that could be taken advantage.

Ten years ago, annual fees on credit cards were removed but it’s now making its way back to people’s credit card statements.  Even if a number of credit companies already included annual fees on their customers’ credit card statements, all credit card holders will now have to deal with annual fees. 

Further added fees are also created by some credit card issuers.  Inactivity fee is one which can amount up to $20 usually given to those who had stopped using their credit card for six months.  Another one is known as processing fee where for every paper statement processed, $1 is charged to the customer.

Existing fees were also raised and one of them is the balance transfer fee.  From 3 percent to 5 percent, one particular financial institution, JPMorgan Chase, will now charge customers who wants to lower their rates by transferring their current balance from another bank or financial institution.  Customers who want to do balance transfers would have to pay for it since doing the balance themselves would mean that they have to close the existing one which the new provider will not accept.

Last year’s interest rate amounted to 10.7 percent.  Now, interest rate for new credit cards is at 13.6 percent.  Base rates is also expected to be increased soon and this would be a concrete legitimate basis for lenders to raise variable interest rates as well.

Credit card holders may also have a hard time to obtain and maintain their credit cards.  Nowadays, lenders granting credit cards has become more stricter and are doing all sorts of measure to reduce risks.  Because of the economic slump, not only did banks tighten the way they grant credit, but they also devised lots of schemes to get more revenue from their credit cards.

Credit limits were also cut for millions of people.  An estimated available credit amounting to $1 trillion is said to have been eliminated by doing this.  The most cuts on credit limits that occurred in California and Florida due to the high unemployment rate and housing crisis. 

People should also not be surprised if they are not receiving credit card solicitation in their mail anymore.  Compared to year 2000 up to 2008 which had an average of 2.3 billion solicitations, only a quarter of this figure have been recorded in 2009.

A few restrictions have been added to the new credit card law as well and a large amount banks will surely discover some ways to get around it.  This is an additional factor why banks will be more reluctant to issue credit cards especially to those who have low credit ratings and low FICO scores.  A good credit rating will be the only full-proof method for someone to be approved a credit card.