Thank your Senator for the Credit CARD Act, and urge him or her to give it the support of a strong, independent CFPA.

Highlights Of The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility And Disclosure Act

Notification requirements:

• Requires that banks mail statements at least 21 days in advance of the due date.

• Requires 45-day notice of adverse changes in terms.

• Requires notice of right-to-cancel if new terms are unacceptable.

Rate and late fee requirements:

• Bans hair-trigger rate increases for late payments: No increased interest rates are generally allowed on balances unless customer 60 days late.

• Prohibits late fees for bills due on Sunday or a holiday.

• Prohibits late fees on bills that arrive before 5pm local on the due date, or arrive the next day.

• Bans raising rates because of late payment to other creditors (universal default clause) in the first year of any card contract.

• Bans universal default permanently on existing (previous) balances.

• Bans double-cycle billing, designed to collect interest on amounts already paid in previous months.

Restrictions to over-the-limit transactions:

• You now need to tell your credit card company to allow transactions that will take you over your credit limit and incur additional fees.

• If you opt in, credit companies can impose only one fee per billing cycle.

• If you opt-out, over-limit transactions will either be turned down, or if allowed, there will be no additional charge. You can revoke your opt-in at any time.

Additional changes:

• Gives FTC greater authority over deceptive marketing of “free-to-pay” offers for products that are not free, such as credit monitoring.

• Also provides new protections for purchasers of pre-paid gift cards.

For information on additional changes, see the Federal Reserve Board's fact sheet for consumers.