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December 03, 2007
Credit Card Confusion Elimination Legislation
Consumers can rejoice in legislation that is coming thanks to Sen. Ron Wyden proposing The Credit Card Safety Star Act of 2007
The essence of what the Credit Card Safety Act is attempting to achieve for consumers is a 5 star credit card safety rating system, which will provide consumers with a standard of what credit card issuers deploy sneaky tricks and which ones create obscure card offers that confuse consumers into paying higher interest charges and usage fees.
One problem creating confusion with credit card applicants are items such as variable rate interest as well as varying fees. Quite often, especially for those new to holding a credit card, the variable rates are a bit confusing. Consumers are lured into a card offer via a low annual APR and then are charged incredibly high ongoing rates.
The problem arises because people simply don’t read the terms and conditions, the fine print, to see exactly what they are agreeing to. The terms and conditions are usually very long and make for a difficult read due to the industry jargon.
I hope with all my heart that the Credit Card Safety Star Act is implemented as it will at the very least serve as a caution to read the terms and conditions in detail before agreeing to any credit card offer.
Regardless of what happens, consumers must take the onus on themselves and thoroughly read the credit card agreement they are signing. This piece of advice should be taken seriously for any financial agreement you are signing whether it be for a credit card, loan or even a cell phone plan.
You are signing a legally binding agreement to pay a certain amount of money and you will be held to the agreement through to the expiration date so take heed my warning and read the fine print on everything requiring you to pay for any product or service
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