Disclosures would increase on subprime credit card fees      
Subprime credit cards are issued to customers with bad credit or no credit history. They are sometimes referred to as "fee harvester cards" in the credit card industry. These cards typically carry low credit limits of $250 to $500 and are designed to help cardholders launch or re-establish payment histories.
 
New rules for credit card minimum payments      
The proposed Regulation Z revisions cover two different kinds of disclosures designed to warn consumers who make the minimum payments on their accounts. Paying only the minimum amount each month lengthens the amount of time credit cardholders can take to pay off their debts -- and increases the amount of interest creditors earn from accountholders.
 
New rules for credit card minimum payments      
The proposed Regulation Z revisions cover two different kinds of disclosures designed to warn consumers who make the minimum payments on their accounts. Paying only the minimum amount each month lengthens the amount of time credit cardholders can take to pay off their debts -- and increases the amount of interest creditors earn from accountholders.
 
New rules considered for changes in credit card terms      
As with the account opening disclosures, there currently are few format requirements for change-in-terms disclosures. Thus consumers generally discover them in notices, amendments or pamphlets seemingly written by a legal whiz but undecipherable to average readers. That will end under the proposals. If the change in terms is one that must be provided in a table in the account-opening summary, it must be provided in a table in any notice of a change in terms. Creditors can also give notice of change-in-terms on your periodic or monthly billing statements, but again, in a table.
 
Rules for credit card periodic statement disclosures      
With their proposed changes to periodic statement disclosure rules, federal regulators seek to reduce confusion by mandating uniform terminology and by grouping similar transactions on your monthly or periodic statement. Under the board's proposal for periodic statements, part of its proposal to make sweeping changes to Regulation Z, a vague term such as "assessment" would have to be called a "fee," and fall under the heading "fees," separated from sections labeled "Payments and Other Credits," "Purchases," "Cash Advances," "Balance Transfers" and "Interest Charged." In addition, the statement provides total fees and total interest charged year-to-date.
 
Rules for credit card periodic statement disclosures      
With their proposed changes to periodic statement disclosure rules, federal regulators seek to reduce confusion by mandating uniform terminology and by grouping similar transactions on your monthly or periodic statement. Under the board's proposal for periodic statements, part of its proposal to make sweeping changes to Regulation Z, a vague term such as "assessment" would have to be called a "fee," and fall under the heading "fees," separated from sections labeled "Payments and Other Credits," "Purchases," "Cash Advances," "Balance Transfers" and "Interest Charged." In addition, the statement provides total fees and total interest charged year-to-date.
 
New rules eyed for credit card account-opening disclosures      
Regulation Z requires creditors to disclose all costs and terms before a new credit card's first use. However, according to the board, "Currently, there are few format requirements for these account-opening disclosures, which are typically interspersed among other contractual terms in the creditor's account agreement." The regulators want that to change. They would do away with the option of presenting account-opening information in tiny type legalese. The proposed account-opening disclosure is intended to organize the information in tables and standardize its presentation to allow easier comparisons.
 
Rules proposed for credit card fee disclosures      
When it comes to disclosing fees, the difference between the old and the proposed approaches is stark. Under the current Regulation Z , fees are grouped in one small box of the larger disclosure table, with one exception, one that illustrates the problem with the old fee disclosure table.
 
Credit card APR disclosure rule change proposed      
The Federal Reserve Board, as part of its wide-ranging review of credit card disclosure rules, has proposed two different approaches to the so-called "effective annual percentage rate (APR)" -- the amount of interest credit card users actually pay after factoring in finance charges such as cash advance fees and balance transfer fees. This "effective APR" is much higher than rates typically advertised for credit cards. Creditors say consumers don't understand the effective APR, that it's hard for creditors to explain, and that it's "inherently inaccurate."
 
New rules would fix 'fixed' credit card rates      
A proposed change to Regulation Z will end the current practice of allowing card issuers to advertise "fixed" rates that can change whenever the issuers feel like it. Currently, issuers can offer a "fixed" rate credit card -- and change the rate 15 days later or "at any time for any reason." Under the proposal, the term "fixed" will have meaning: If no time period is specified, the rate will remain fixed as long as the account is open and payments are kept current.
 
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