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President Obama yesterday told a crowd gathered for a town meeting in Rio Rancho, N.M., that he wants Congress to take speedy action to finalize the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights. "I'm calling on Congress to send (the bill) to my desk so I can sign it into law by Memorial Day," he said. The U.S. Senate this week is considering a slew of amendments that would change credit card industry practices, including giving consumers 45 days' notice of interest-rate increases. Obama told the crowd that many existing card-industry practices "are not honest," noting that credit card companies confuse consumers with "the fine print" in credit card agreements and that as a whole the industry charges consumers more than $15 billion annually in penalty fees. Obama called for greater transparency and more tools for consumers to compare card offers and for an end to "unfair rate increases and abusive penalties" and other fees. "We expect that when we enter into a credit card agreement it should be reasonable and (with) transparent (terms). ... We expect to pay what's fair, not just what fattens growing profits for some credit card company," he said. The card industry must be held to a higher standard of accountability, Obama added. "Instead of abuse that goes unpunished, we need to strengthen monitoring and enforcement and penalties for those that engage in deceptive practices that take advantage of families," he said. Although the Federal Reserve has issued rules addressing certain credit card industry practices, Congress must also act and because of the economic crisis "there is no time to delay," Obama noted.
