Big changes are coming to the credit card industry - and none too soon for most people.
Deceptive practices will be reined in and card issuers will no longer be able to change the terms you agreed to just because they want to.
The sad thing is that the changes won't go into effect until July 2010.
Just for fun, I took a look back at the changes that have taken place in the past.
  Did you know that until the mid-70's there were virtually no regulations other than those imposed upon members by the industry itself? Congress didn't begin regulating the industry until then.
  Banks were eager to get new customers and collect that interest - so eager that they actually mailed active credit cards to individuals who had not even asked for them.
  Many of these individuals were college students.
During the late 60's it was not at all unusual for a college student living away from home to find a credit card in his or her mailbox.
  This practice, by the way, was banned when the U.
S.
Congress began regulating the credit card industry.
But card issuers have never stopped trying to lure college students.
Now they set up tables on campuses and offer students incentives from teddy bears to pizza to free CD's in order to talk them into filling out an application.
  The new rules will likely prohibit this action - and heavily regulate extending credit to anyone under 21.
  When credit cards first became popular, some merchants wanted to add surcharges to consumer purchases in order to offset the fees they paid to the credit card issuers.
This caused quite a dispute and was finally settled when the 1968 Truth in Lending Act was amended in 1974 to prohibit surcharges, but allow retailers to offer discounts to customers who paid cash.
  Do you remember talk about "usury laws?" Until 1996 laws existed that capped the amount of interest and fees that card issuers could charge.
The restrictions were lifted as a result of a lawsuit entitled Smiley vs.
Citibank.
So now, credit card issuers can charge any interest they please, and any fees they want.
  Thankfully, after July 2010 they won't be allowed to apply new interest rates to existing balances - they'll only be able to apply them to future purchases - and they won't be able to apply them to those new purchases before giving you fair warning.
  The easy credit was only step one in burying the American consumer in debt.
Add to that a practice that kept them in debt forever.
Many card issuers asked for such a low minimum payment that even a consumer who made no new purchases would see his or her debt rising - the minimums didn't even cover the interest each month!  That changed in 2003 when new guidelines required banks to set a minimum payment of the month's interest plus at least 1% of the principal due.
But even at 1%, taking 100 months to pay off a debt and paying interest of only 10%  means paying about half again for your purchase.
That's enough to make you stop and wonder if you really need that new pair of jeans or those cool new shoes.
By the time you pay them off (about 8.
3 years if you make minimum payments) you'll have forgotten you ever owned them.