Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is pleased with Tuesday’s overwhelming U.S. Senate passage of the credit card reform bill. She sees it as a measure that will protect consumers from interest rate and late fee charges many people cannot afford to pay.
"It is going to crack down on some of the fine print unfairness in credit card agreements," said McCaskill in her weekly radio conference call. "And require of credit card companies that they be transparent and upfront and advise consumers on what the pitfalls are in the agreement that they are entering into."
As for the specifics of the legislation: "They range from limiting how often and notice requirements on interest rate hikes," explained McCaskill. "We’re going to stop the practice of sending credit cards to 18-year-old college freshmen. We’re going to require that they apply payments to the oldest and highest interest as opposed to playing games with where the payments are applied."
The bottom line, according to McCaskill, is that this is not an effort to stop credit card companies from making money – But the companies will have to be more transparent and upfront about their practices. President Barack Obama cold sign the legislation by the end of the week.
Download/Listen: Senator Claire McCaskill (1:26 MP3)
