CARD Act fix & homeowner tax credit

Message from Dan Mica:

Great news to end the week: President Obama today signed into law H.R. 3606, the CARD Act Technical Corrections Act, which fixes the law so that the 21-day notice period will apply only to credit cards rather than to open-end credit in general.

The President also signed legislation extending the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit that was set to expire at the end of the month. That bill also creates a new $6,500 tax credit for current homeowners who purchase a new home between December 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010.

On the credit card fix, this is one of the most important pieces of legislation for credit unions to come out of Congress this year. As you know, credit unions had been scrambling to meet the law’s provisions on open-end loans – even though the law was never meant to cover those loans.

By signing the law, the President gives credit unions the opportunity to go back to doing what they do best: Serving their members with affordable and needed financial services. Again, our thanks to all of the leagues and the many credit unions that worked to convince House and Senate leaders to pass this fix into law. Without your efforts, credit unions would still be reeling from the unintended consequences of this law.

We know credit unions have some questions about “un-complying” with the 21-day requirement now that the fix has been enacted. For those who may have missed it, we ran an excellent article in News Now earlier this week addressing compliance questions. You can find it at the link below:

http://cuna.org/newsnow/archive/list.php?date=103009#43346