Many consumers still are not familiar with the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act and many say it has had no effect on them, a survey concluded.
The lack of consumer awareness of the CARD Act is good news for banks, according to Auriemma Consulting Group.
"Cardholders appear relatively unaffected, despite the changes in the credit card landscape resulting from the act and initiatives taken by banks to offset lost revenue," the company said in the Cardbeat survey report.
Auriemma, of New York, conducted the online survey of 420 U.S. consumers in January.
Congress passed the CARD Act, which President Obama signed into law in May 2009, to create fair and transparent practices related to the extension of credit under an open-ended consumer credit plan.
Most of the law took effect in January last year.
Under the law, card companies cannot impose any excessive fees and have to give cardholders 45 days' notice of any interest rate increases.
Cardholders also may set their own credit card limits.
About 27% of survey participants said they were familiar with the CARD Act, while 73% were unfamiliar with it. About 68% said that the law had no impact on them.
Auriemma managing director Patricia Sahm said the survey findings did not surprise her.
"Consumers are just not having conversations with other consumers or their banks about it," she said in an interview.
Moreover, the card industry, leery of the expense it would entail, has done little to inform consumers about the CARD Act, Sahm said.
"So, short of lawmakers and consumer activist groups doing promotions, there really is no champion for it," she said.
Banks have other things to worry about, such as the impending cuts in debit card interchange revenue and the general regulatory environment, to take time to get consumers up to date, Sahm said.
The Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act resulted in the Federal Reserve Board's proposing a 12-cent cap on debit interchange fees.
The cap has not yet gone into effect; the comment period has ended and the central bank is scheduled to publish its final rule in April.
Another reason so few consumers are aware of the CARD Act is that the resulting changes to their credit card statements are small, said Auriemma associate Scott Strumello.
Moreover, the law may have required issuers to apply customer payments toward the highest interest balances first, but for consumers carrying a balance month to month the change in their payment may be less than $1 a month, Strumello said.
Only 24% of respondents noted a difference in the interest rate on their primary credit card within the past six to 12 months, while 76% did not notice any difference, the survey found.
Banks nevertheless face a "PR challenge," the report said, since consumers have assigned banks partial blame for the state of the economy.
