Protecting consumers was the main focus on the subject of creating and implementing the new credit card law.  But a lot of experts and consumer advocates are still asking for more protective measures for consumers and say that the new law is lacking or will cause more burden to individuals who are already credit card holders or seeking to get credit cards.

Currently, borrowers who are thought as “risky” suffer the most because of the high interest rates and fees being slapped on them.  Certain of the reasons lenders provide is that customers belonging to the “risk” group are the ones who have a higher probability to be unable to pay their obligations and raising fees and interest rates are their tactic to get the most out of their customer.  The new law will present restrictions that will somehow limit this form of practice but there are also some new, yet not so new regulations which banks can “modify” to their advantage.

Annual fee that was removed from credit card fees a decade ago have been resurrected.  Although annual fees have already been included to a significant number of statements, this is now something that all credit card consumers will have to deal with from now on. 

Ways to create added revenue were also created by some credit companies.  One of which is known as inactivity fee which can amount up to $20 usually given to those who had stopped using their credit card for half a year.  Another one is known as processing fee where $1 gets charged to new customers who apply for credit cards and it’s for the processing of paper statement.

Other fees that already exist like balance transfer fees have also been raised.  From 3 percent to 5 percent, one particular financial institution, JPMorgan Chase, will now charge customers who wants to lower their rates by transferring their current balance from another bank or financial institution.  Customers who want to do balance transfers have no choice but to pay since the only way that an effective balance transfer could take effect is coordination between the old and new provider.

Last year’s interest rate amounted to 10.7 percent.  Now, interest rate for new credit cards is at 13.6 percent.  Base rates is also expected to be increased soon and this would be a concrete legitimate basis for lenders to raise variable interest rates as well.

Lots of credit card holders may also experience a harder time in keeping credit cards and getting new credit cards will also be the same.  Banks these days are more cautious in issuing credit cards and are doing all sorts of measure to reduce risks.  Since the economic crisis, not only did banks tighten the way they grant credit, but they also devised a lot of schemes to get more revenue from their credit cards.

Millions of people have also experienced cuts on their credit limits.  An estimated $1 trillion amount of available credit is said to have been eliminated by doing this.  The most cuts on credit limits that occurred in California and Florida due to the mortgage crisis and high unemployment rate. 

Most credit card providers are now sending credit card solicitations only to those they know are good candidates.  Compared to year 2000 up to 2008 which had an average of 2.3 billion solicitations, only a quarter of this figure have been recorded in 2009.

A few restrictions have been added to the new credit card law as well and a large amount banks will definitely discover several ways to get around it.  This is an additional factor why banks will be more reluctant to issue credit cards especially to those who have low credit ratings and low FICO scores.  Credit card offerings will be more likely targeted to individuals who have a good credit score or have other banking activities such as savings accounts.