This past Thursday was the fourth time in the past year that House of Representative lawmakers discussed the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, unveiled earlier this year by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. More than half of the 15 witnesses that testified before a panel of the House Financial Services committee endorsed the 9-point legislative plan. The issue has taken on more relevance as more and more Americans are facing rises in unemployment, inflation and have had to increase their reliance on their credit cards to make ends meet.

A statistic from the CNN article, Congress Tackles Credit Card Reform:

Based on the most recent data from the Federal Reserve, the average American family carries an average of $2,200 in credit card debt.

As fallout from the recent housing and credit crises hit the big companies, more everyday folks are now feeling the affects as the companies, in order to preserve their profits, are passing the whole of the costs onto the consumers. This is the point many credit card company critics have argued. Many credit card issuers have been charged with engaging in “unfair” practices such as raising interest rates on debt even when consumers pay on time or imposing excessive fees. Read more…

Teaching your kids about money management is a very important lesson, but that lesson becomes even more necessary when your kids are ready to leave the nest and to go to college. College is usually the first time people are exposed to managing their own finances and the way they deal with them at this important time can be a benchmark on how they will manage their finances throughout their lives. If you’d like to teach your teen about money and credit, keep reading to get some good tips. Read more…

If you are a first year college student at a university, you probably get at least 5 opportunities a day to get a credit card. If you have resisted that free t-shirt or frisbee, good for you. You should base getting your first card on solid information, not free swag. Here are some things you should be aware of when you are ready to take the plunge and get your first credit card.

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