New rules are on the way to regulate credit card issuers. While the House of Representatives shaped a new bill to reign in issuers (see Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights), the Senate ran out of time and failed to address it. The Federal Reserve, on a parallel track, has devised a set of rule changes in the same spirit as the Bill that stalled in the Senate. On the down side, the rules don't take effect until July, 2010, giving issuers another year and a half to bleed consumers under the current lax regulations.

The common thread between the two initiatives is broad consensus that issuers have spiraled out of control over the last few years in their exploitation of consumers. Referring to the Fed actions, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the new rules "are a good first step, but they don't prevent a number of unfair, deceptive and predatory practices that saddle many American families with crushing debt."

Automatic payments are not the same as internet payments, even automatic internet payments.  This sounds strange, but let me explain.  Most issuers allow you to pay your credit card bill using the internet.  Payments post anywhere from later the same day to 2 or 3 days later.  Some charge extra for same day service, exploiting the procrastinators among us who wait until the due date to make a payment.  Some issuers let you set up automatic payments on the internet, letting you schedule a fixed payment amount every month.  This is usually a safe bet for a card on which you are paying down debt.  If you are actively using a card, an automatic internet payment gives false assurance, as your payment changes every month.

 True automatic payments differ from internet automatic payments in that you can tell the issuer to pay the minimum amount every month, regardless of what that amount turns out to be.  The down side is that issuers