A Credit Card Quiz: What’s Legal?

This weekend’s Bottom Line column:

Readers of The Bottom Line pride themselves on their credit-card discipline (please say it’s true), but how many of you watch the people watching you spend your money?

Do you know the most, by law, you will ever pay on an unauthorized charge to your credit card? When Creditdonkey.com asked that question in a survey this summer, 70 percent of respondents did not know the Fair Credit Billing Act limits a consumer’s responsibility to $50.

When can a credit card company increase interest rates? More than 56 percent in the Creditdonkey.com survey did not know that, because of the Credit Card Act of 2009, rates cannot increase in the first year. The exceptions are cards with a variable-rate interest rate, an introductory rate (which must remain in effect for six months) or if you’re more than 60 days late on a bill payment.

Now let’s see how you do on The Bottom Line quiz.

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