Skip to main content

0% Credit Card Offers May Soon Disappear


by Kelli B. Grant
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
provided by Smartmoney.com

Believe it or not, the federal bailout is not the only thing on Congressional leaders' minds these days.

Over the past several months, lawmakers and the Federal Reserve have been moving toward new regulations targeting the credit card industry. Just last week, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to pass the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, which was drafted to mirror regulations the Federal Reserve is planning to announce this fall.

The Fed rules, while binding for credit card issuers, are more easily undone than law -- hence the parallel proposals, explains Linda Sherry, a spokeswoman for Consumer Action, a consumer advocate. The Senate is not expected to review the bill until after any new Fed rules take effect January 1. It's extremely unlikely they could (or would) weaken the standing regulations, she says.

The regulations are tremendously good news for cardholders. Consumer advocates hail talk of eliminating predatory lending practices like retroactively applying interest rate hikes to balances, and implementing new requirements such as a 45-day notice before raising interest rates.

Not surprisingly, the credit card industry is balking at the proposed new rules. Among other things, card issuers note that because of the greater restrictions, they will no longer be able to afford to offer the enticing teaser rates used to lure customers in. "It could wipe out all these 0% financing offers overnight," says Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com.

It's already slim pickings. The number of mailed solicitations credit card issuers sent dropped 14% during the second quarter of 2008, according to market researcher Mintel Comperemedia. "They're going to focus more than ever on their profitable customers," says Scott Bilker, founder of DebtSmart.com.

While any new regulations on the credit card industry may cut promotional offers in the short-term, expect a bounce back -- or other good deals -- as companies get used to the rules. "There was a life before 0% financing offers, and there will be a life after," says Gerri Detweiler, credit advisor for Credit.com. "These companies want your business and they want to make money."

Still, now is a good time to lock in a 0% rate -- assuming you qualify. "If you have good credit, the doors are still open to you," says Bilker. Those with a less-than-stellar score may receive offers for shorter promotional periods, or less favorable ongoing rates.

Here are five card offers to consider:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soy Products Can Reduce Sperm Counts!

By: Heather Hajek Published: Friday, 25 July 2008 www.healthnews.com C alling all men who want to become fathers! Soy products may reduce a man's sperm count. Based on a recent study, men who consume soy products may have lower sperm counts than those who don't. The study was based on a small group of men who visited the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center from 2000 to 2006. Even though the study found that some of the men who ate soy products on a regular basis had lower sperm counts, the researchers conducting the study are not saying that soy products were the cause of the lower sperm concentrations. The men who had soy products in their diets recorded lower sperm counts than those that didn't, but their counts were still within the normal range. Researchers don't deny that during the study men who consumed soy products had lower sperm counts, but they want people to realize there are other factors other than soy products that may have played a role in th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Obesity linked to quantity of sleep!

P eople who sleep fewer than six hours a night - or more than nine - are more likely to be obese, according to a new US study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies. The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use. The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don't get proper shuteye, said Dr Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don't do so well," Kramer said. The study is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 US adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Centre for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such surveys can't prove cause-effect relationships, so - for example - it's not clear if smoking causes sleeplessn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Women with long nails speak out against iPhone design.

M ost people either love or hate the iPhone's touch screen, and based on a report on the LA Times , women with long fingernails are among the haters. Why? Well, since the iPhone's touchscreen only responds to electrical charges emitted by your bare fingertips, women with long nails are left out in the cold. A woman interviewed for the article went so far as to suggest Apple was being misogynistic because it did not include a stylus for women and didn't consider womens' fingers and nails when designing the phone. Honestly, though, this same argument has come up against keyboards, touch screen monitors, and anything else that involves the use of your fingers, so should every gadget maker change the design of its products to accommodate users with long nails, or should people with long nails learn to work around this problem like they have in the past? I'd love to hear what Apple has to say about all this, but I doubt they'll ev...
Post a Comment
Read more