The Bill of Rights includes provisions that:
- protect cardholders against arbitrary interest rate increases (such as universal default and "any time any reason" price hikes) and require a 45-day notice of any interest rate increases
- prevent cardholders who pay on time from being unfairly penalized (eliminating double-cycle billing and fees on interest-only balances)
- protect cardholders from due date gimmicks (requiring card companies to mail statements 25 days before the due date - 14 days is the current minimum - and prohibits charging late fees if provided with proof of mailing the bill within 7 days of the due date)
- shield cardholders from misleading terms (such as "fixed rate" vs. "prime rate")
- empower cardholders to set limits on their credit (creating a self-selected credit limit that cannot be exceeded, thereby eliminating over-the-limit fees)
- require card companies to fairly credit and allocate payments (many card companies require that payments be allocated to lower interest rate balances first)
- prohibit card companies from imposing excessive fees on cardholders (limits the number of over-the-limit fees to 3)
- prevent card companies from giving subprime credit cards to people who can't afford them (requiring that fees for subprime cards whose total fixed fees over a year exceed 25% of the credit limit be paid upfront before the card is issued)
- require Congress to provide better oversight of the credit card industry (improves data collection on industry profits and fees, and provide an annual accounting to Congress)
- contain NO rate caps, fee setting or price controls (a concession to the card companies)
Maloney, who chairs the House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, said, "A credit card agreement is supposed to be a contract, but in recent years cardholders have lost the ability to say no to unfair interest rates hikes and fees." The bill "levels the playing field between card companies and cardholders while fostering fair competition and free market values. It sets no rate caps, fees or price controls, nor does it dictate any business models to card companies."
