Pew Safe Credit Cards Project Statement Urging House to Pass the Credit Cardholders'...

Pew Safe Credit Cards Project Statement Urging House to Pass the Credit
Cardholders' Bill of Rights

WASHINGTON, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Statement of Nick Bourke,
manager of the Safe Credit Cards Project at the Pew
Health Group:

"In this economic climate, allowing credit card issuers to continue to engage
in unfair and deceptive practices is like letting a car company continue to
sell cars we know have faulty brakes. Congress needs to act now to give
consumers protection under the law from business practices that the Federal
Reserve and our independent research have shown are widespread. We strongly
urge members to vote tomorrow for the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights to
protect consumers and make it clear that this Congress demands safe and fair
lending practices."

The Pew Safe Credit Cards Project recently evaluated general purpose credit
cards offered online by the largest 12 issuers, which control more than 88
percent of all outstanding credit card debt in America. Based on its research,
Pew developed a set of Safe Credit Card Standards and is recommending
immediate legislative action from Congress.

Select findings from the research include:
-- 100 percent of cards contained features that the Federal Reserve has
determined cause substantial harm to consumers.
-- 93 percent of cards allowed the issuer to raise any interest rate at
any
time by changing the account agreement.
-- 87 percent of cards allowed the issuer to impose automatic penalty
interest rate increases on all balances, even if the account is not 30
days or more past due. The median allowable penalty interest rate was
27.99 percent per year.

The project's report is available at: www.pewtrusts.org/creditcards.

SOURCE The Pew Charitable Trusts

Kip Patrick of The Pew Charitable Trusts, +1-917-319-8603,
kpatrick@pewtrusts.org