As Americans continue to struggle with high credit card rates, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a rule to help lessen some of their financial burden — in the form of lower late fees.
The new rule would limit late fees to $8. Currently credit card companies can charge as high as $41 — penalties that the CFPB’s director, Rohit Chopra, said are charged for “no purpose beyond padding the credit card companies’ profits.”
The CFPB rule amends regulations that implemented the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, and addresses a loophole that provided a loose standard that said late fees must be “reasonable and proportional.”
