Credit card companies should be more closely regulated
Americans have mixed feelings about credit cards. On the one hand, they seem to put card issuers in the same category as bullies: 82% say card issuers are not entitled to change the terms of accounts at any time for any reason.
In fact, card firms certainly do have those rights and exercise them regularly. And a whopping 92% of Americans believe the industry should be more closely regulated. In fact, that wish will come true, as the Federal Reserve Board, Office of Thrift Supervision and National Credit Union Administration recently adopted new rules designed to safeguard consumers from credit card abuses. Those rules won't go into effect, though, until July 2010.
But if their credit lines were to dry up today, 40 percent of Americans claim they wouldn't care a whit. Bankrate commissioned GfK Roper to learn about the attitudes Americans have about credit cards. The results indicate complex emotions are involved, dominated by a strange mixture of attraction and aversion, with emphasis on the latter.
Certain industry practices have left credit cardholders feeling bruised and mistrustful. The general sentiment is that credit card companies should not be entitled to change the terms of your account at any time for any reason.