New Credit Card Rules

>> Jim Axelrod: The credit card industry got a bill of its own today; 800 pages of rules from the Fed, spelling out the credit card reforms President Obama signed into law last May.

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Speaker: It takes what might be cracks and crevices and tries to cement them up, and give people a working blueprint of actually what their going to have to comply with and how Congress really wants this carried out.

>> Jim Axelrod: Set to be implemented next February, the regulations prohibit any interest rate increase in the first year after opening an account, any rate increase on an existing balance, and they prohibit consumers under 21 from getting a card unless they prove they can pay or get a signature from a parent. Leading up the implementation of these rules, the credit card companies jacked up their lowest advertised rates an average of 20 percent.

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Speaker: And a lot of these institutions are really skating on the edge in terms of pushing Congress over the edge.

>> Jim Axelrod: In fact, House Financial Services Chair, Barney Frank, is so angry; he's talking about moving up the rule's start date from February to December. The 5,000 companies that issue cards say that's too soon.

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Speaker: This is a monumental change, and we must make sure we get this right.

>> Jim Axelrod: The banks are also under mounting pressure. Discover's credit card losses were up 8 percent in August, Bank of America, 10 percent, Citigroup, 21 percent. But that's not generating a lot of sympathy these days from consumers or Congress. Jim Axelrod, CBS News, New York.

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