Credit Card Usury Bill Coming Soon In House.

[elleng]

Several congressional Democrats said on Wednesday they plan to introduce legislation next week to cap credit card interest rates.

With unemployment and Wall Street bonuses incongruously rising together, the chairman of the House Rules Committee said she will offer a bill to cap rates at 16 percent, a proposal that could catch a wave of Populist sentiment in the House.

"Things were a lot better for the average person in this country when we had usury caps," Representative Louise Slaughter, head of the rules panel, said in a statement.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/25/us/politics/politics-us-financial-regulation-usury.html

[gels]

1. I can hear the screaming

from freeperville already!

[salguine]

2. And, true to form, the bill will be written by lobbyists from the credit car industry, and will

ultimately end up RAISING interest rates. Democratic leaders will hail it as a bold step.

[susanr516]

3. I fear you are correct

If there's much more credit card "reform" passed by Congress, I'll never be able to pay off my last card.

[ihavenobias]

4. K & R. I'm not optimistic, but if we spread the word enough, who knows. n/t

[Vidar]

5. I hope it works, but fear it won't.

[tomm2thumbs]

6. if they did cap it, they'd better have a clause that limits fees too - because they are notorious

for going around the rules and finding loopholes

[oedura]

7. It'll never happen...

If anything does pass, it'll be some ridiculously watered down piece of shit bill with a million loopholes, and even then they'll set some ridiculous start date on it that's a decade or so from now.

[dickthegrouch]

8. There's an easy solution

Force the CC companies to pay interest on credit balances at the same rate they charge it on debit balances.

It could be a new source of funding for them - hahahahahahahaha

[jimlup]

9. I like this idea alot...

I have a card with a zero balance that thinks its going to charge me 29.9% I'd be more than happy to store money on it at an interest rate of 29.9%

...Obviously for this reason it will never happen but it seems fair by all measures. How could the uber-capitalists disagree?

[Demeter]

10. The Credit Card Companies Are Working Themselves Out of Business

There won't be any such thing in 10 years. Good riddance!