As you may have heard in the news, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (The CARD Act of 2009) was recently signed into law.

One of the CARD Act’s provisions, effective in August 2009, requires financial institutions to send out a “change-in-term” notice 45 days before increasing interest rates and fees or changing other significant terms of the cardholder agreement.

A second provision requires that billing statements for credit cards be provided at least 21 days before the payment due date.  

At Baltimore County Employees Federal Credit Union, VISA Platinum Credit Cardholders will not see any changes with their billing statements or the notification process since our policies already comply with these mandates.

The second provision that requires billing statements to be provided at least 21 days before the payment due date also applies to Home Equity Line of Credit and Preferred Credit loans with us.

As a result, all existing Home Equity Line of Credit and Preferred Credit loans will be assigned a new payment due date of the 28th day of each month.

Additionally, all existing Home Equity Line of Credit and Preferred Credit loans that are paid bi-weekly through payroll deduction will be assigned a new monthly payment amount of two times the bi-weekly payment amount. Previously, twenty-six (26) bi-weekly payroll dates were used to calculate the payment amount.

Please be assured that members using bi-weekly payroll deductions for these types of loans will still be able to pay by that method and NO ACTION is required.

For new loan applicants starting September 1, 2009, the payment amount for these two “open-ended” loan products will be shown as a monthly figure on disclosures and statements.

If you have specific questions regarding your loan, please call 410-828-4730, and press “2” for a Loan Department Representative.

Note: Auto Loans and all other Closed End loans will remain unchanged.