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

Is the Recession a Holiday Gift?

"We assume the recession is a bad thing, but it may actually be a blessing," says Sharashkin, editor of The Ringing Cedars Series (Ringing Cedars Press, June 2008, ISBN: 978-0-9801812-0-3, $15.95). "Why? Because it forces us to re-evaluate the way we live. As a culture, Americans need to slow down, cut our consumption, rediscover our spiritual selves. Most people spend too much money mindlessly, and worse than that, we spend our precious time mindlessly. The recession can inspire us to get mindful about both."

Sharashkin offers the following hints for unearthing the recession's hidden gifts:
Re-evaluate your work life. Are you working too much? Does what you do make you unhappy?
Make a conscious decision to consume less.
Quit spending so much money on the people you care about. Instead, spend time with them.
Take a TV sabbatical. Watching TV saps your time and energy. It overstimulates your senses, making relaxation more difficult—especially close to bedtime. And it's particularly harmful to children, whose minds and value systems are highly impressionable.
Create and nurture a vegetable garden. The Ringing Cedars Series frequently references Russian Dachniks—gardeners who live on small plots of land and spend much of their free time cultivating abundant fresh food gardens that produce the majority of the fruits and vegetables that make up their diets.

"Suffering has a purpose: It signals the need for change," he says. "And it's often the precursor to immense growth. The pain America is feeling from the recession is telling us we must change our unsustainable ways.
"You may think, well, I can't change America, but you can because we're all connected," adds Sharashkin. "You can change your own life. Your family can change theirs. Your neighbor, inspired by how much happier you seem, can change his. Every life touches other lives, which in turn, touch still other lives. And if the recession can facilitate this kind of change, it's a great blessing indeed."

A Different Take on the Upside of the Downturn

Say Hello to the Thrift Zeitgeist

By Ellen Goodman

It read like a manifesto for the new zeitgeist, a signpost for an America decking the halls with boughs of thrift and singing carols to the values of frugality:

“Perhaps it will be different now. Perhaps now is an opportunity to reassess what really matters. After all, if everything you ever bought her disappeared overnight, what would she truly miss?”

How charming. What a tribute to the collapse of consumerism, the one upside to the economic downside. The only problem was that this little gem of thoughtfulness was an ad for diamonds.

...

Now, competitive consumption has been replaced by contagious anxiety. Buying hit the wall with the housing collapse, the stock market plunge, the credit card crunch and the surge in unemployment figures. “Thrift is the new normal.” “Sixty percent off is the new black.” Cutting back is in. Retail therapy is out.

Consumer Affairs Posts Max Interest Rates

State law requires any business charging interest rates greater than 18 percent to file with the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs (SCDCA). In an effort to help consumers during these difficult financial times, SCDCA is taking things one step further. The Department launched a new listing online that provides information on all businesses that have filed maximum rate schedules with interest rates above 18 percent. The listing also includes information on all car dealerships charging closing or documentation fees. Consumers may find the listing on the Department’s Web site or through this link.

The list currently includes nearly 1900 businesses and dealerships that either have interest rates greater than 18 percent or charge closing fees. Businesses or dealerships that fall under one of these categories and have not filed should contact the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs immediately or face potential fines.