The 2009 financial reform CARD Act was meant to help protect customers. One provision of the bill is that those that provide credit can’t issue credit unless the applicant can prove that they can repay it. The bill is causing some severe unintentional consequences, however. Stay-at-home spouses are very possibly going to be losing financial freedom, under the provisions of this bill. Article source – CARD Act could strip stay-at-home partners of financial identity by MoneyBlogNewz.
What changes with the CARD Act in place
The CARD Act contains several provisions intended to safeguard consumers from unfair or inappropriate practices of charge card issuers. The Act also created several new rules that change how card corporations consider income. When applying for credit, “income” is very specific. It does not contain community property or household income. Instead, all income on an application for credit must be individual. Consumers won’t be able to over qualify for credit without money with this law.
The change from the CARD Act rules
Though it may not be intentional, the CARD Act could have a disproportionate impact on stay-at-home partners or parents. There might be one person who works while the other stays at home. In this case, the CARD Act makes it very hard for that stay at home person to get credit. Any stay-at-home spouses can be unable to get an independent credit history although it will stop those without income from getting a charge card. Without credit, there can be less opportunity for jobs. That will make it harder on an individual if the relationship ends suddenly.
The CARD Act and community property
In all the 50 United States, there is some “community property.” This is only in 10 of them though. A pre- or post-nuptial agreement would change things, but the property law means the couple shares anything. Every little thing in the marriage belongs equally to both partners. The CARD Act needs finances to be split in half for couples in community property states. For couples not in community property states, the CARD act simply means that one partner can’t obligate the other partner to bad credit loans or other debt without their explicit agreement.
How you’ll be impacted by the CARD Act
The CARD Act provisions will be really hard on any person who is a stay-at-home partner. If you stay at home and don’t have paying employment, you may be required to get your partner’s signature on every little thing from credit card applications to personal loans. Try and get a good credit history. This can help you a lot. Employment or some way of verifying monthly income from your partner is essential, as is maintaining open lines of communication about finances.
Citations
NCLC
nclc.org/
The Library of Congress
thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR00627:@@@D&summ2=m&
No comments:
Post a Comment