UPDATE: The Huffington Post reports, “The House of Representatives passed sweeping credit card reform legislation Wednesday aimed at limiting abusive and deceptive credit card practices. The measure passed with a resounding 361-64 vote and now heads to the president’s desk.”

The Senate will meet to vote today on the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act—legislation intended to ban alleged corrupt credit card industry practices that largely plague young, college-aged students.

“Credit card companies profiting from confusion and deception should be forbidden, and if the Senate does the right thing tomorrow, soon it will be,” said Tom McMahon, acting executive director of Americans United for Change, in a press conference yesterday.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a co-author and an ardent supporter of CARD, noted the strong banking opposition that the bill has and will continue to face in an interview with SCOOP44.

“I suspect that there will be strong industry opposition to these changes. We’ve seen a demonstration of that force recently with bankruptcy reform legislation,” Sen. Whitehouse said.”One would hope, but I’ve seen the lobbying force of the big banking industry…Obama and Dodd have given momentum on this issue.”

Sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act [CARD Act] narrowly passed through the U.S Senate Banking Committee with a 12-to-11 vote on March 31. Consequently, Sen. Dodd has since worked to revise the bill in an attempt to broaden its appeal before it reaches the Senate floor today.

However, Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, said that the bill goes too far and feared that it would make it so fewer consumers could receive credit.

“[The bill] goes too far in prohibiting lenders from adjusting prices to account for increased risk,” the Senator told the Wall Street Journal after the preliminary vote on March 31

Specifically pertinent to students, the bill prohibits the issuance of a credit card to people under the age of 21 if they have not submitted a written application meeting certain requirements.

According to Pedro de la Torre, advocacy senior associate for Campus Progress, the bill will make sure that people under the age of 21 have either a cosigner or some independent way of paying back the debt.

“Unfortunately, on campuses [young people] are targeted with cards that have terrible terms and conditions, and these cards are collectively marketing towards them,” de la Torre said. “This [new act] is going to be really helpful for young people.”

The CARD Act will further work to prohibit credit card companies from unfairly raising interest rates by setting interest rates more transparently. Additionally, under the bill, companies will no longer be able to retroactively set interest rates to already existing accounts.

The act is also designed to crack down on what some consider to be abusive fees.

Consumers would no longer be subject to a fee for paying their bills over the Internet, and credit card companies would be required to mail billing statements 21 days before the due date to help cardholders avoid late fees.

The CARD Act seeks to establish more stringent penalties for companies that violate these regulations

The estimated cost of the bill is six dollars per American over the 2010-2014 period, and if the Senate passes the bill, it will be sent to be voted on in the House.

Alexander Heffner contributed reporting.

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