Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009

Congress loves acronyms. So every time Wall Street rips off Americans and Congress reacts to the scam, the government comes up with the clever name of a law that likely won’t solve any problems in the future.

Meet the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009, or CARD.

This was a law passed under the Obama Administration that aimed to provide “fair and transparent” practices around consumer credit plans. That’s a fancy way of saying that credit companies should provide greater awareness of unexpected fees, and disclose payment penalties.

Keep in mind that consumer credit protection laws had been passed by Congress all the way back in 1968. So this law was just a reaction to the loopholes that the credit organizations had discovered, and ultimately exploited.

This bill requires that lenders have to provide advanced warning of rising interest rates. They also need to tell lendees how long it will take to pay off a loan if they just make minimum payments over time. Credit card companies were also no longer allowed to give away merchandise on college campuses, or to market to young Americans. It also limited expiration dates on gift cards.

Oh, there’s also (for some reason) a rider in the bill that prevents the Secretary of the Interior from prohibiting firearms in national parks. So...there’s that.