Washington – President Barack Obama plans to crack down on deceptive credit-card industry practices that have saddled U.S. consumers with huge debts and soaring interest rates, a senior aide said Sunday.
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Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Obama would be “very focused in the very near term on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses.”
“We need to do things to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addict people to it,” Summers said in an interview on the NBC television talk show “Meet the Press.”
Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the administration is concerned about practices that result in consumers being “deceived into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn’t have paid if they knew they were getting themselves into.”
Summers and other officials are scheduled to meet next Thursday at the White House with top executives of credit card companies.
The meeting comes as lawmakers have vented anger that banks with big credit card operations charging high interest rates and fees are the same institutions getting government bailouts from U.S. taxpayers who use these credit cards.
The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are considering a credit card “bill of rights” that would limit the ability of credit card companies to raise interest rates on existing balances and require greater disclosure of terms.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has spoken out against complexity in consumer lending practices that is designed to confuse customers and drive up lending fees.
The Fed in December tightened up rules concerning credit-card practices and the proposed legislation would take those efforts further
Too little too late
so this means its going to be very hard getting a credit card.
Say what you want about the man, he’s working non-stop for the American people and deserves our respect.
#2 , You Know Da Song “Its Never Too Late”? Btw A Bill To Restrict The Credit Card Companies Will Never Pass Congress And Senate, Because The Credit Card Industry Is More Powerfull In America Than Our Nice President Obama.
Obama Is Smart He Knows That Most Of Us Suffer From Cc Debt He’s Just Getting Our Support
it is about time. all these companies are taking tarp money and if you miss one payment on your bill they default your apr to 29.99 APR. This is chutzpah of the credit card companies.
Good morning Mr. Obama…You are doing the same thing as the consumers..You borrow money from China at high interest rates and giving out those monies to Banks and Institutions who take them self Bonuses in the MILLIONS……
Obama should force the CC companies to drop interest rates. One of my cards (which carries no balance now) has a 29.99% rate on it. It was 14%. I had carried over a relatively small balance one month and now they claim I am a risk… I’ve never paid even ONE bill to them late.
Forget about the marketing. The fact is that stupid people will always do stupid things. Stop making ME pay for it. Do something about these policies that allow a company to charge 30% COMPOUNDING interest just because they feel like it!
It is about time we the consumers are being helped. The credit card companies are way out of control and they will not work with anyone. They are totally unfair. They won’t budge and yet they were bailed out. Now it is the consumer’s turn!!!!