After the new CARD Act rules took effect, a recently concluded study has found that most banks have come clean with regard to the rates, they charged consumers.

The CRL or the Center for Responsible Lending has examined the effect of the CARD Act, 2009, where there were predictions of higher interest rates on cards. After the recovery from the economic slowdown, the actual prices (on card use) seem to have remained stable and the available credit limit has not been tightened beyond the expected limits.

However, plenty of cardholders have seen hikes in rates on their individual card use. The CRL had relied on the Fed Reserve’s national average known as the ‘accounts assessed interest’ to get the facts.

This law has been a result of the increasing complaints by consumers, that they had been misled for many years into believing they were paying less for the card debt that they incurred, which was untrue. Now, the greatest changes that have been brought about since the last three decades include tough restrictions on the hikes in interest rates as well as late fees.

According to the CRL, the difference between the slated rates on the card solicitations and the actual rates that the consumers paid, was huge and had risen to unprecedented levels during 2004, and continued to remain that way until 2008. That gap has positively come down ever since the CARD Act took effect, and now the gap has been bridged, as per the study.