Measures before the House and Senate are designed to enhance protections for credit card customers. The House debated a bill that would prohibit so-called double-cycle billing and retroactive rate hikes and ban the issuance of credit cards to people under 18, but wouldn’t take effect until a year after enactment. Another requirement in the bill, that customers receive 45 days notice before their interest rates are increased, would go into effect in 90 days.

For the best reasoning as to why this is a bad idea, see the John Stossel piece we discussed below.