Do Your Part To Get Credit Under Control

The New Year is a good time to begin new practices, especially concerning money management.

As we enter 2009, it's especially important to begin handling your credit card differently -- because in more than a year, the credit card industry must change the way it treats you. And trust me, there will be little room for you to make a mistake in how you use such credit because the industry wasn't happy about the forced changes.

The Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration approved new regulations for credit card issuers prohibiting certain "unfair acts."

Among other things, the new regulations prohibit lenders from raising interest rates on existing balances unless a payment is received late. Credit card issuers will no longer be able to charge a late fee if a statement isn't sent in a reasonable amount of time to allow a consumer to make that payment. Issuers also would not be allowed to allocate customer payments in a way that repays debts with higher interest rates last.

In an idiotic move on the government's part, the new regulations don't become effective until July 1, 2010. The government wanted to give the companies time to change their systems.

Let's see: A woman can carry and give birth to a healthy baby in nine months, but the feds can't see fit to make credit card companies change their unfair and deceptive ways for a year and a half?

Oh well, no use complaining. What's done is done. But I do want to look at a few of the new rules and what you can do in 2009 to change your charging habits.

The regulators imposed a number of rules to help consumers avoid getting hit with late fees or higher interest rates. They include:

· A ban on treating a payment as late for any purpose unless you are provided with a reasonable amount of time -- at least 21 days -- before the due date.

· The establishment of a reasonable cut-off hour for mailed payments to be considered on-time on the due date. The agencies deemed 5 p.m. to be a reasonable time of day. When mailed payments are not accepted on the due date, such as on weekends or holidays, creditors must consider your payment received on the next business day as being timely.