Diamond Tax Consultants Blog

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CCARD) passed this week. Great news for folks who run up balances and pay interest. Not such great news for folks who always pay their bills on time, or who take advantage of the the 0% interest rates. Expect annual fees. The companies want to make money on you.

However, CCARD does include protections against sudden and arbitrary increases in your interest rate. And it prevents credit card companies from billing for back interest, on the previous month. If you cancel your card and have a balance due, the interest rate gets frozen. They can’t raise your interest rate once you cancel. Be sure to cancel in writing to prove the date of your cancellation.

Overlimit fees will be discouraged. I don’t understand them anyway. How can you be overlimit if the credit card company has to approve all charges? Why would they approve a charge if it’s over your limit, anyway?

Aaaah…no interest on fees, like late fees, etc. Charging interest on the fees is kind of like a double penalty. 

Read the bill summary. It’s only three pages.

http://snurl.com/c-card

IRS HAS DROPPED ITS
      INTEREST RATES AGAIN

If you underpaid your taxes and did not pay-up by April 15,
here’s some minor “good news.” The interest you will pay
has been reduced to four percent. Of course, there may
be late-payment penalties on top of that.

GOOD NEWS (if you already got hit with “bad news”):
 HAVE YOU JOINED THE RANKS OF
   THE UNEMPLOYED THIS YEAR?

If so, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 says that the first $2,400 you receive in unemployment
benefits, will be considered “tax free” when you file your
taxes next year.

This tax-exclusion is per person, so if both husband and
wife lose their jobs and both receive unemployment, they
may each exclude $2,400.