After years of credit card reform failing in congress and the senate, the Federal Reserve finally passed their own set of regulations last December. However, they weren’t set to take effect until July 2010.

Late last week, President Obama signed a similar credit card reform bill that won’t go into effect immediately, but it does bump relief a bit sooner… February 2010.  Democratic senators Chris Dodd and Carolyn Maloney, among others, sponsored the bill.

Notable changes the bill will bring include banning the practice of “out-of-the-blue” rate hikes, unless the cardholder is more than 60 days late on payment.  It also makes it more difficult for adults under the age of 21 to acquire a credit card, which will of course of a huge impact on future credit marketing on college campuses.

The banks have long cried that reform such as this will bring higher interest rates across the board for all customers. They claim that the revenue from bad credit credit card holders is what pays for the low interest rates and 0% balance transfer offers that those with excellent credit benefit from. Do you think this is true? What do you think the industry will look like a year from now after these reforms go into effect?

Written May 2009