Sen. Bernie Sanders introduces bill to limit credit card interest rates

From the Los Angeles Times:

Bill would limit loan, credit card rates
David Lazarus
March 15, 2009

Since the beginning of the year, millions of credit card customers have been hit with higher interest rates -- in many cases from lenders that have received billions of dollars in bailout cash from taxpayers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, responded last week with legislation that would impose a 15% cap on rates for all consumer loans, including plastic.

And you know what? It just might work.

That's because Sanders' bill would trump a 1978 Supreme Court ruling that allowed banks to set credit card rates at whatever their home state allowed. Banks, in turn, high-tailed it to places like South Dakota and Delaware, which abandoned their usury laws to entice financial institutions into setting up shop.

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