Have you received a credit card statement yet this month? If so, did you notice anything different about it? I ask because, as of July 1, your credit card statement has to meet specific formatting guidelines laid out by the Federal Reserve. These requirements are part of a larger set of rules put into place by the Fed back in 2008.
According to Randall Kroszner of the Federal Reserve, the goal is to:
“…increase transparency and fairness in how credit card and deposit accounts operate, thereby enhancing competition and empowering consumers to better manage their accounts and avoid unnecessary costs. The rules represent a significant step forward in consumer protection. By ensuring fairness and making credit terms easier to understand, these safeguards should allow more consumers to benefit from using credit.”
The new reporting requirements include a clear summary of your account activity and payment information, a late payment warning stating any fees or penalty rates that you might trigger, a warning as to how long it will take to pay off your balance (and how much it will cost) if you only make the minimum payments, clear disclosure of any account changes including those related to interest rates, and so on.
To better illustrate these changes, we’ve assembled an infographic (below) that highlights the new requirements. Simply hover over a number for details. And if you’d like to see a larger version of the image, simply click on it.
Mandated warning: paying off your balance will take longer than you think, because your federal government is burning tax money telling you and your bank how to do business with each other.
I think that the people who have credit cards should pay it off as fast as they can. Earning an 18 percent return before taxes is the same as paying off a 16 percent credit card.
Courtney: Yes, July was just the final deadline. Some issuers were actually ahead of the curve on this.
I’ve seen a lot of this starting several months ago (Citi and Chase). Citi also put the ‘Late Payment Warning’ on my online account summary, but as a link that I had to click on to bring up a pop-up box. It freaked me out the first time I saw it because I thought it was telling me that I was getting a warning because I had paid late, even though I hadn’t!