Credit Card Cos., Obama to Discuss Practices

WASHINGTON -- In an attempt to halt "deceptive practices" by some credit card companies and make it easier for consumers to understand terms and rates, President Barak Obama will bring executives of credit-card companies to the White House for a meeting Thursday to discuss those issues, according to Obama administration spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The administration is concerned about "deceptive practices that are involved, some of the outrageous fees that are charged," Gibbs told Bloomberg News. "The president believes we can increase the transparency involved and cut down on these deceptive practices and ensure that any system involving fees is done in a way that is fair."

A list of the companies attending the meeting was unavailable, the report stated.

"The administration and, I think, the public in general would be happy" if the credit-card companies voluntarily changed their practices, Gibbs added.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" program Sunday, Lawrence Summers, director of Obama's National Economic Council, said the president is "very focused" on "the way people have been deceived into paying extraordinarily high interest rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what that they were getting themselves into."

Better financial regulation and efforts to block the marketing of "addictive" credit to people will help reduce the amount of debt owed by consumers, he said.

Related News:

-- FMI Decries Credit Card Interchange Fee Increases

-- AAFES Reports 20 Percent Increase in 2008 Credit Card Fees

-- Visa, MasterCard Plan Processing Fee Hikes
X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds