Consumer Confidential: Credit card rules, bank withdrawals, Reader’s Digest

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Here’s your moodily Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Those new credit card rules take effect today, and President Obama is among those singing the praises of the tough-love oversight of plastic providers. These are good rules, make no mistake. But the banks aren’t dumb. They’ve been busy doing an end run around the regulations by introducing new fees and charges, and by switching customers from fixed-rate cards (which fall under the new rules) to variable-rate cards (which don’t). Best advice: Shop around if you don’t like what your bank is pushing. Other big banks might not prove much better, but the credit unions could be a viable alternative.

--How much do we love banks? Let us count the ways. Or let us focus simply on our friends at Citibank, who have notified customers that the bank reserves the right to require seven days’ notice before any withdrawals can be made from checking accounts. Huh? ‘While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change,’ the bank has warned customers nationwide. Hard to say what they’re up to, but you know it’s not good.

--Everyone likes a happy ending: Reader’s Digest says it’s out of bankruptcy and is carrying less of a debt load. The feel-good magazine that many people under the age of 90 wouldn’t dare be caught reading says it has a whole new board of directors and is ready for a new lease on life. I’m still wondering, though, how a printed ‘digest’ for readers can compete with blogs that pretty much do the same thing, but with more sass.

-- David Lazarus