Credit cards hiking rates and fees

The Wall Street Journal has a good story about credit card companies hiking rates and raising fees. The credit card business is ripe for reform.

The industry argues against new regulations by saying the impact will be to raise rates and make cards more expensive. So what? It’s happening anyway. At least consumers would get better information and transparency when it comes to credit cards with reform. This way consumers can easily shop around for the best card. Transparency makes markets work better. The reason why credit card companies don’t like reform is that it would make the market more competitive, not less.

And can someone explain to me why cancelling a credit card because the issuer has raised the interest rate, fees and penalties should slice into your credit score? Why does FICO penalize consumers for being savvy with their credit?

The Wall Street Journal in the article has a nice chart summarizing the changes:

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