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Previously, lenders would often use tactics to trip consumers into paying late, so that the lender could impose a late payment fee or penalty interest rate thus jacking up the interest rate to stratospheric levels. The CARD Act of 2009 seeks to prohibit and interfere with these tactics as follows:

– Prohibits credit card issuers from setting payment cutoff times earlier than 5:00 p.m.

-Requires payment due dates to be on the same day each month.

-If the due date falls on a weekend or a holiday, it is now required that a payment received on the next business day be considered timely.

-It is now required that lenders mail to you the credit card statement no fewer than twenty one days before the due date or end of the no-interest grace period.

Special thanks to the National Consumer Law Center, "Guide to Surviving Debt" 2010 edition page 79, available at www.consumerlaw.org.