Tired of dirty little tricks by the credit card companies like that unexpected interest-rate increase on your credit card and confusing grace period? The Federal Reserve is accepting public comments through Aug. 4 on new credit-card rules it proposed in May.  If the Fed decides to adopt them, card-issuers will need to follow them.  If not, Congress may have to step in.

Changes being proposed (Aug 4 deadline):

1. Prohibit credit-card companies, in some instances, from hitting you with a higher interest rate on debt you’ve already incurred.
2. Issuers would be required to apply at least a portion of consumer payments to higher-rate debt. Some issuers put payments first to cheaper debt, such as balance transfers that have low rates, rather than to higher-rate purchases.
3. Prohibit “two-cycle billing,” in which banks compute interest on debt on days preceding the most recent billing cycle, a practice that can result in borrowers paying interest on debt paid off during the previous month’s grace period.
4. Banks would be required to provide consumers a reasonable amount of time to make payments.

To comment, go online to federalreserve.gov and click on “Consumer Information” at the top of the page. Click on “Proposed Rules for Credit Cards and Overdraft Services,” scroll to the bottom of the page, and under “Regulation AA,” click on “Submit comment.”

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