Little Rock - Airdate: July 1st, 2009

President Obama recently signed a law that will…in the future…impose new rules and restrictions on credit card companies designed to protect consumers.

But as Seven-On-Your-Side's Jason Pederson points out…card holders need to worry about the present.

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Curtis Arnold tracks credit card trends for a living for his website, www.cardratings.com.

Arnold has been noticing several disturbing trends as card issuers try to find ways to offset money they will lose to new rules early next year.

Arnold says the next seven months will be like a wild, wild west for card holders.

(Curtis Arnold/cardratings.com) “I think the average credit card rates…we track these on cardratings.com…are going to rise by the end of the year going into early next year and hit as high as 15 percent. Also fees are going to go up. We already have a couple of issuers…actually three issuers that are experimenting with five percent balance transfer fees.”

Arnold says the new rules will include:

* No surprise interest rate increases.

* Restrictions on retroactive rate increases (not possible unless you are 60 days late)

* Statements must be mailed 21 days in advance

* Payments made by 5 pm EST on your due day will be considered “on time.”

* Higher payments (above the minimum) will be applied to higher interest

* An end to Universal Default (which is when a credit card issuer raises your rate not because you paid late to them but because you paid late to somebody else).

* Restrictions on issuing cards to college students 

 (Arnold) “Right now basically the law of the land is if you are 18 and you have a heartbeat and you're in college you can get multiple credit cards.”

Starting in February it will be much tougher for anyone under 21 to get a credit card (they will need a parent to co-sign or prove they have the means to pay incurred debt) and lower limits will be available for those who do qualify (20 percent of their annual income or $500…whichever is higher).

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