Financial Privacy & Security News

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2009 – Statement from PennPIRG's federal Consumer Advocate Ed Mierzwinski on the passage of the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.

“PennPIRG commends the U.S. House for its overwhelming passage today of Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY)’s Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights. For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to steal.

“The bill bans the worst credit card practices, such as tricking you into paying your bill late then imposing a draconian 30% or more APR or, worse, raising your rate for no reason at all.

“Now we hope that President Barack Obama’s support for reform will help Senator Dodd break the logjam preventing his even stronger bill from getting to the floor, so we can get a bill to the President before Memorial Day.

“It is critical that final reform take effect sooner than the July 2010 implementation of the Federal Reserve’s delayed rules banning certain credit card practices. Strapped consumers cannot wait that long for protection against tricks and traps taking hard-earned money from their wallets”

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PennPIRG, the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group, is a  non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit http://www.pennpirg.org/financial-privacy-security