Credit Cardholders' Bill Of Rights Act Of 2009
Floor Speech
Credit Cardholders' Bill Of Rights Act Of 2009
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Mr. Chairman, I'm very glad to be able to offer this amendment with the gentle lady from California. It really is a commonsense amendment, and I do want to address the gentleman from Texas's concern that in the Truth in Lending Act it does protect banks from being victim to fraudulent accounts being opened. It doesn't cover that, but we will certainly work with the gentleman from Texas on language that would make him feel better about what we're talking about now.
Now, I've heard from a number of my constituents regarding credit card companies closing accounts in good standing for no reason other than inactivity. I'm sure many of us have constituents in the same position.
Despite the fact that you can use your credit card on just about anything anywhere, many people do that, but many people prefer to use cash. The part of Pennsylvania where I live is not a young area and it's not an urban area. We have traditional folks who like to use cash and don't like to put a lot of credit on their cards. They use the card for emergencies. They don't use it for sort of day-to-day expenses.
So not only were constituents and neighbors of mine surprised to be losing their credit card privileges, but they were concerned over potential harm to their otherwise great credit ratings due to card companies' desire to wipe inactive accounts from their books.
This amendment would protect people who supposedly underutilize their credit cards from forced closure of their accounts and negatively impacting their credit scores. It requires credit card companies to notify cardholders at least 30 days in advance of an account closure. It also requires the card companies to tell cardholders that their account closure could adversely affect their credit rating. And it requires card companies to give cardholders guidance on how to appeal the issuer's decision to close the account. It's just a commonsense protection for cardholders. That's all it really is.
And as I addressed earlier, the gentleman from Texas has some concerns. We respect them, and as I mentioned, we're willing to work with him on that.
But in the end, I encourage all my colleagues to support this amendment.
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