Paying for credit card reform

Will responsible cardholders bear the cost of new legislation cracking down on credit card abuses?

Washington's new credit card rules will “reward the irresponsible while punishing the responsible,” said Rob Port in Say Anything. According to The New York Times, the new rules—approved by the Senate Tuesday—could push banks to revive annual fees, slash rewards programs, and otherwise penalize those who pay off their cards on time and in full, all to subsidize the bill’s beneficiaries: “people who don’t pay their bills.” Nice job, liberals.

That’s “nonsense on stilts,” said John Cole in Balloon Juice. Despite all the “pre-emptive fearmongering by the credit card companies,” the new rules really mean that hard-hit cardholders, and businesses—which pay card issuers “exorbitant” transaction and other related fees—will no longer subsidize the “perks and other free stuff for ‘responsible’ people.”

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