A good friend who always checks every single item in every bill has told me she finds more companies playing games with the bills lately. She even got
December 15, 2008

A good friend who always checks every single item in every bill has told me she finds more companies playing games with the bills lately. She even got charged a late fee because they changed the posting time (not date) on her bill. She fought it and won.

If this goes as expected, those practices will be outlawed this week:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. credit card industry, harshly criticized for imposing surprise fees and interest rate hikes on consumers, may face a day of reckoning on Thursday.

The Federal Reserve is to vote on credit card reforms that may bring some relief to customers who face a variety of ways for being hit with late fees, universal defaults, shorter payment periods and confusing payment allocations for different balances.

Credit card users likely also would see easier-to-read tables in their monthly statements as a result of the changes.

The new rules, which were proposed earlier this year, are expected to total some 1,000 pages. They need approval of the Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration, which all are expected to act on Thursday.

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