Spratt Votes to Protect Credit Card Customers

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) voted to provide credit card customers with fundamental protections against unfair and deceptive credit card practices, such as due-date gimmicks, double-cycle billing, excessive fees, and issuing cards to minors.

The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights (H.R. 627) passed the House on April 30 by a vote of 357-70.

“This legislation will help to level the playing field between customers and credit card companies and give consumers the tools to manage their credit responsibly”, said Spratt.

The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights will:


· Protect cardholders against arbitrary interest rate increases

· Prevent cardholders who pay on time from being unfairly penalized

· Protect cardholders from due-date gimmicks

· Prevent companies from using misleading terms and damaging consumers’ credit ratings

· Empower cardholders to set limits on their credit

· Require card companies to fairly credit and allocate payments

· Prohibit card companies from imposing excessive fees on cardholders

· Protect vulnerable consumers from high-fee subprime credit cards

· Bar issuing credit cards to vulnerable minors