Credit Card Legislation on the Books

Posted by: Meredith K. | Jan 20,2008


Who knew this day would come?  As I mentioned on Friday, anger and frustration with the credit card industry is reaching critical mass.  People are just frustrated with how credit card companies have been predatory of average consumers.  This outrage might be fueled in part because people are annoyed with their high credit card debt (debt that in some cases could have been avoided) but more often credit cardholders are taken for a ride.  Interest rates go up, fees are added, and other problems that weren’t even necessarily part of the original contract.  

I have taken college kids to task for some of their irresponsible spending habits in the past.  But now that I’m out of school I sometimes forget what it was like to be more of a newbie to the big, bad real world.  You can’t exactly expect a young person to automatically know something that they’ve never been taught.  So while it’s pretty dumb for a college student to charge a thousand dollars in a night on a credit card, you can’t fault them for not understanding all the terms regarding interest and fees.  

So here comes this news that a bill has passed the house requiring state universities to provide education for students about debt and credit.  I know that there are probably a lot of you out there who don’t like the government laying down the law in such a manner, but this is what it’s come to.  The reason that the credit industry and the mortgage industry has had such trouble is because of the lack of regulations, the lack of oversight, and the lack of accountability.  It led to a climate where “anything goes.”  So even if you have a libertarian streak where government should keep out of the people’s business, you have to recognize that the lack of regulation is what led to some of the credit mess we’re currently in.  

It’s not like this bill in the House is going to solve the credit crisis, but you’ve got to take one issue at a time.  And I’m glad to see some action being taken at the highest level.  As has been shown by the insane increase in credit card abuse by college students, some guidance is imperative and so something had to be done.   

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