Credit Card Regulation

Yet another instance where government regulation has hurt consumers and businesses…wait. I think I got that one backwards.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or Credit CARD Act of 2009 has been reported to better protect consumers from credit cards they cannot afford than they were before Congress passed the law by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

If read about what the act does for credit consumers you might realize that Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma added an unrelated rider to the bill to prevent the Secretary of the Interior from enforcing any regulation that would prohibit an individual from possessing a firearm in any unit of the National Park System.

I’m not sure why this was needed to pass the bill, the rider seems very incongruous with the idea of the law. I will never understand politics I am not a part of.

Consumers are protected from credit card companies charging opaque fees for going over allowable credit limits in order to create a market where consumers can see the costs of each card upfront.

Since 2009, Visa (V) is up 162%, MasterCard (MA) is up over 200%, American Express (AMP) is up 130%, Capitol One (COF) is up 95%, and Discover (DFS) is up 280%.

Due to a law passed by a Democratic Congress and White House, consumers pay less penalties for late payments and other unexpected fees, credit card companies have seen EPS soar, and American’s can no longer be charged for hunting in the King’s forest.