Supreme Court Upholds Credit Card Fee Regulation
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday a federal regulation that allows credit card issuers to disclose as other charges the fees for customers who exceed their credit limits.
The justices overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that credit card companies must instead disclose the so-called "over-the-credit-limit" fees as part of the finance charges.
The ruling was a victory for the federal government, which said the appeals court ruling would expose credit card lenders to significant liability and would confuse consumers. It said there are about 1.3 billion U.S. credit card accounts.
The case stemmed from a class-action lawsuit brought by Sharon Pfennig.
She claimed a unit of Prospect Heights, Illinois-based Household International Inc. violated the Truth in Lending Act by letting her exceed her credit limit and then imposing fees. Household is a unit of Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc."
Evil (the Federal Reserve and the banks) won again.
They are making sure that banks can continue to exploit consumers and post record profits from FEES.
Why can't card holders simply request that charges exceeding the limit be declined so that they won't be hit with the overlimit fees?
Posted by Christine at April 22, 2004 06:59 PM | TrackBack