During Ed Mierzwinski’s first 18 years as our consumer advocate in Washington, D.C., no bill opposed by a credit card company was so much as scheduled for a vote by a congressional committee.
But the events of the last year have helped loosen the credit card industry’s grip on Congress—and made very clear the need for reform. This summer, RIPIRG worked alongside our allies and many members of Congress to pass legislation that will stop some of the credit card industry’s most egregious anti-consumer practices.
The new law bans credit card companies from retroactively hiking rates on existing balances; prohibits ìuniversal defaultî in the first year of a contract (that’s the practice in which a card company changes the terms of your contract if it finds a new negative mark on your credit report); and protects college students from many of the ubiquitous and predatory marketing schemes you may have witnessed on campuses in recent years.
Mierzwinski joined two of the legislation’s biggest champions, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.), in the Rose Garden as President Obama signed it into law.
