I’ve noticed a couple of disturbing money-related bills pass through congress with little notice. What’s troubling about these bills is that they seem to be nothing more than a giveaway to the banking industry. The first is the check 21 law, which basically says that deposits come out of your checking account immediately after they are submitted. However, deposits can still take a week to clear. It only seems fair that in this computerized age that we would update the seemingly archaic float period for checks, but to only do this for debits is amazing.
What this means for consumers is that bouncing checks is much easier. Say your $1000 paycheck is deposited into your checking account via direct deposit on Friday. The account previously had $100 in it and you write your $500 rent check on Monday. Your rent check will now bounce if it is submitted on Tuesday, even though you have a pending $1000 deposit. You can thank your elected representatives for this wonderful giveaway to the banking industry.
The other piece of legislation was discussed today and makes extensive changes to bankruptcy law. Now if you make above the median income, declaring bankruptcy doesn’t cancel your debt. Senator Jeff Sessions insinuated that there were many cheats who game the current system and that they needed to be reigned in. This, of course, is a load of crap. The banking industry stands to make 5 billion dollars from the rule change, which explains the motive for the legislation. More disturbing were Sessions’s assertions that people that declare bankruptcy get off ’scott free’. Bankruptcy destroys your credit, which affects everything from buying a house to getting a job. Clearly declaring bankruptcy is not something that you do on a whim –and now, its protections have decreased substantially.
Oh, there was also a bill that would require credit card companies to note on your statement how long it would take to pay off your balance if you pay the minimum payments. It failed on a strict party line vote. Gotta love how the government looks out for you.