Consumers need to be especially vigilant about their credit cards for the next few months.  I’m sure you’ve all heard that major regulatory changes were signed into law back in May, 2009 regarding how credit card companies can operate, but keep in mind the law does not go into effect until February, 2010.  That means the credit card companies still have 6 more months of business as usual.  Here’s a few things be careful of in the meantime.

• After the law goes into effect “universal default” will go away, but it’s still in place now.  Universal default is a practice were credit cards companies B, C, D, and E all raise your interest rates after you pay credit card A late.  So be especially careful about getting those bills paid on time.  Which brings us to the next point, due dates.

• After February, the credit card companies will have to give you at least 3 weeks from the billing date to make your payment before you’re late, they won’t be able to arbitrarily change the billing date, and it will be illegal for them to set the bill due at, say, 11:00 AM when they know the mail doesn’t come in until 2:00 PM.  So that means in the meantime they can do all of those things.  Be sure you open your statements when they arrive and check the due date on them.  If you’ve forgotten to mail a payment out and realize that you aren’t going to be able to get it to them in time, you might need to suck it up and pay one of those astronomical phone pay fees, because if you don’t you might just see the rates on all your other cards go up because of universal default.  Your cards going from 12.99% to 24.99% is going to cost you a lot more than that $35.00 phone pay fee.

• Know your credit limits and balances.  Come February you will be able to “opt-out” of exceeding your credit limit.  Your purchases will be denied if they exceed your limit.  Right now though, credit card companies can still approve transactions that put you over the credit limit, allowing them to charge ridiculous over limit fees, raise your rates, lower your limits, etc.  You’ve got to protect yourself until then though, by being aware of how close you are to your limits.

So make sure you’re reading your bills carefully.  That doesn’t mean that after February everything will be hunky dory and you can just sit back and trust the credit cards companies to do the right thing, which of course is ridiculous.  The best person to protect you from unfair business practices isn’t the government; it’s you, so regardless of regulations watch out for yourself.  Use some good old fashion common sense—spend only what you can afford, pay your bills on time, and don’t let anyone take advantage of you.