Stormin Mormon wrote:
Makes me wonder what's going on.

Where have you been????

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors voted 5-0 on December 18 to
approve the new rules, the third of three agencies to act. ...

The rules were released jointly by the Fed, the Office of Thrift
Supervision (OTS), which regulates savings associations and thrifts,
and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), which oversees
credit union operations. The OTS and NCUA approved the measures
earlier on December 18.

"The new regulations will fundamentally alter the relationship that
cardholders have with their banks and the way that banks communicate
with cardholders," Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers
Association, said ...

... Regulators gave banks and credit card issuers until July 1, 2010,
to implement changes in their billing, marketing and advertising systems.

According to the Fed, the 2010 date was selected to give issuers time
to "extensively redesign systems and modify procedures to comply with
the changes required under both regulations."

....
Among the predicted consequences of the new rules:

* No more zero percent balance transfer offers.
* A return to routine annual fees on credit card accounts.
* Significant reduction in subprime credit cards, forcing those with
bad credit to ... options such as payday loans.
* Higher interest rates for all credit card users.

In its comments on the proposed changes filed with the Fed on Aug. 4,
Chase Card Services estimated that major issuers would have to
increase interest rates by more than 1 percent to offset the
additional lending risks. A study submitted to the Fed indicated
accounts for as many as 45 million cardholders could closed as a
result of the risk-based pricing rule restrictions.

Bernanke had promised to finalize the credit card rules by year's end.

It's getting close to year end and the bewitching hour approaches...

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