Expediting Credit Card Protection – Letter from Senator Feinstein
The following is an email I received today from United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. I thought you might like to see what she and others are doing to protect you from the greedy creditors who have been jacking up your interest rates, fees and payments ahead of the new laws going into full effect on February 22, 2010. I invite you to get involved to help speed up the implementation of these protections as well. See the bottom of the message to join the effort…
Dear Mr. Niesen:
Thank you for contacting me to express your support for legislation to expedite the enforcement date of recently enacted credit card protection legislation. I appreciate the time you took to write and welcome the opportunity to respond.
On May 22, 2009, President Obama signed into law comprehensive credit card reform legislation known as the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-24). While the bill takes important steps to assist Americans facing difficult financial situations, I understand that some of its provisions intended to prevent abusive lending practices have not yet gone into effect.
As you know, on September 24, 2009, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) introduced the “Expedited Card Reform for Consumers Act of 2009″ (H.R. 3639), which would move the enactment date of most provisions of the CARD Act to December 1, 2009. This includes the prohibition on credit card issuers increasing interest rates on cardholders in good standing for reasons unrelated to the cardholder’s behavior, and a limitation on unreasonable penalty fees. This bill is currently pending before the House of Representative’s Committee on Financial Services. I am a cosponsor of similar legislation in the Senate known as the “Credit Card Rate Freeze Act of 2009″ (S. 1927), which would prevent any interest rate or fee increase on existing credit card balances until February 2010.
Additionally, I appreciate hearing your support for the creation of a new consumer protection agency to prevent unscrupulous lending practices. You may be interested to know that on October 22, 2009, the House Committee on Financial Services passed the “Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009″ (H.R. 3126), which would establish an independent agency to regulate abusive and predatory credit card practices, place certain restrictions on financial products, and develop best practices for securities retailers. On November 10, 2009, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) released his version of financial regulation reform legislation, which would develop a similar agency.
I strongly believe that more transparency and oversight is needed for complex securities and derivatives. To that end, I introduced legislation in the 110th Congress that reestablished Federal oversight of our Nation’s electronic energy futures markets, which closed the “Enron loophole.” Please know that I will keep your support for a consumer protection agency in mind should this issue come before the full Senate.
Once again, thank you for writing. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.