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Proposal would cap credit card interest ratesHowever, a lesser-known debate in Congress focuses on a different matter - placing a specific cap on the interest rates that card companies can charge. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, has tried and failed in the past to advance his proposal to place a 15 percent limit on credit card and loan interest rates. Sanders has indicated that his bill is a response to constituents dismayed that banks accepting taxpayer funds are saddling them with interest rates as high as 30 percent. Elsewhere, a Boston Globe report raises doubts about the prospects for making the proposal a reality, in part because some leading Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden, represent states where the credit card industry maintains a particularly large presence. The newspaper also noted that President Obama to this point has not thrown his support behind a specific proposal dealing with credit card interest rates. Groups like the Consumer Federation of America have also not yet taken a position on the Sanders legislation because, the Globe adds, they are waiting to see the effects of a 45-day notification requirement for interest rate hikes included in the federal credit card reforms. Members of Congress are also still working on a proposal that would take February's enactment of the Credit CARD Act reforms and move it up to December 1. However, that proposal has some opponents, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who maintains that the industry needs sufficient time to prepare its system to comply with the regulations. Regardless of whether the Sanders proposal advances in the foreseeable future, consumers may at least find themselves in a more favorable credit card environment by early 2010.
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