Pew Charitable Trusts did research reviewed by Bloomberg, which concludes that none of the major credit card offers made by the largest banks in the United States pass muster under new federal rules to protect consumers.

This issue has to do with the recent Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act. Bloomberg elaborates,

“The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which takes effect in stages, will require banks to apply payments to higher-rate balances first, limit rate increases and ban practices such as “universal default,” or raising rates based on a missed payment with another lender. Most of those rules are scheduled to begin Feb. 22; others took effect Aug. 20, 2009, and some such as limits on gift-card fees are set to start Aug. 22, 2010.”

What should someone with debt take away from this? Credit cards are dangerous, and the terms for their use continue to be unacceptably unfair and deceptive according to the federal government. Instead of credit cards, switch completely to a cash-based payment system and spend only according to a budget, no matter how simple or complex.

Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs.  DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.