This week credit card issuers took a break from raising interest rates, as experts began to see signs that consumers’ access to credit may be starting to ease.

Banks left annual percentage rates unchanged

Giving a welcome break to cardholders, banks left annual percentage rates on new credit card offers unchanged at 12.71%. Consumers have to face costly borrowing terms, as due to the increased regulation banks struggle to protect their profits, as well as cardholder delinquencies have been encouraged by the economic downturn.

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By the New rules some protection against sudden interest rate hikes and payment changes is being given to credit card holders .

It would be starting from Thursday, before raising their interest rates credit card companies would give you 45 days notice instead of the current 15 days.

Cardholders would be able to choose to pay off what they owe at the original rate, but they won’t be able to use the card for new purchases.

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Question: My “fixed-rate”credit card company has offered me a balance transfer giving a fixed rate of 5.9% for the life of the loan, this rate is fixed as long as I am not late on any payments. No other details are given on the balance transfer, it is clearly stated in the fine print on the agreement that they have the right to change the terms of the credit card anytime when they want and for that they just give the cardholders only 15 days’ notice. The new terms can be refused by me but in that case my account shall be closed by them.

My question is that, Is this fixed-rate balance transfer any more fixed than the “fixed” rate on the credit card itself? It has been explicitly mentioned there in black and white that it is fixed for the life of the loan.

If in case they change the terms of the credit card on me and I refuse, then would I be able to pay off the balance (purchases, cash advances balance transfers or special balance transfers like above) under the old terms, or, would they be able to make me pay it all off immediately?

Answer: I must say first that you have asked some questions that are of great importance and you are smart enough that you have read the credit card agreement before deciding that whether to transfer your balances to a new credit card or not.

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Question: Usually I pay all my credit card bills on time, but occasionally it happens that due to some reason I miss the due date by a day or two. So my question is that are these exorbitant $35 late fees fair practice?

Answer: For this question I’m going to start out on the bank’s side. A credit card in its real sense is a line of credit. The bank has made a commitment with you that it will continue to lend you money up to your credit line, and so you have also made a commitment with your bank that you will pay them back. When you don’t pay your bill on time, the bank begins to wonder if you’re going to pay it at all. So by penalizing cardholders for late payment by them, two things are done simultaneously by the bank one is that it trains you to make timely payments and the other is that doing this it gets periodic affirmation of your commitment to repay them. OK, so negative reinforcement is not liked by anyone, and $35 is a quite expensive reminder. Particularly when the banks use a couple of late payments as an excuse to raise the interest rate on your credit card.

So what you should do now? First of all, you should make a call to the credit card company. Tell them that you have decided to move the account if they don’t revoke the late fee. That thing will work the first time, but if it is your second time then it won’t work. Then you should ask yourself that why you are late with these bills. In order to fit your monthly budget flow you may need to organize the due dates .

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Congress wants that it should be harder for the people under-21 to accumulate a mountain of credit card debt.

Credit card holders shall be affected by a new federal law and it will also affect people of all ages who want to have credit cards. But due to the reason that several provisions don’t take effect until February, so for many college students this could be the last semester of truly easy credit.

A recent survey that has been conducted by student loan manager Sallie Mae elaborates that the average amount of debt that is being carried by undergraduate cardholders is $3,173 which has increased up to 46% from five years ago. And the average number of credit cards that are being carried by these students is five.

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By multicard reward programs more choice is given to consumers, but at a cost.

Before the recession, credit cardholders were happy to collect points just in order to get free gas or airline tickets.

Today, the situation is different, however, consumers are willing to pick and choose where they want to spend their points, and this freedom of choice is given to them by many issuers.

Membership to more broad-based rewards “platforms” are being offered by Credit cards, on which consumers have several ways to earn points that can be exchange for cash or consumers might trade in them for merchandise in multiple categories.

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