Toward Better Informed Consumers: A Collection of Strategies from Financial Institutions

Federal regulators first required credit card disclosures in 1968, when revolving consumer debt in the United States equaled around $2 billion. The idea was to help consumers make informed decisions by notifying them of card issuers’ policies and fees. As of year-end 2006, consumer revolving debt had risen to $876 billion, and consumers seemed no wiser. Credit card products are more complicated than they were in 1968, because card issuers now compete in part by varying the terms and conditions of the cards. But the rules of disclosure—the way in which the terms and conditions are communicated to end users—have scarcely evolved in the last 40 years.