Curing the Credit Epidemic by Suze Orman

It's nice to see that a recent bit of congressional jawboning scared a few major credit card issuers into rescinding some of their most egregious practices.

Just before being hauled into a Senate subcommittee hearing, Citigroup, the nation's largest card issuer, announced that it will no longer impose "universal default" on its cardholders. This clause in Citi's credit card agreements allowed the company to boost the interest rate on a cardholder's account at the first whiff of a late payment on any other accounts the person held.

At the same time, Citi also said it would stop its "anytime, any reason" right to boost interest rates whenever it felt like it. Chase also got in on the consumer-friendly act by announcing that it will no longer use the "two-cycle billing method," a system for calculating interest payments that was a huge cost to cardholders who infrequently failed to pay off their balance in full each month.

Read more at: Curing the Credit Epidemic by Suze Orman