Recently the CARD act took effect, which means that cardholders will be able to get relief from double cycle billing and arbitrary rate increases. In addition, the CARD act promises that credit card bills will be much easier to read. However, with the new act comes a new series of rules and regulations that savvy consumers should know about.

First,there is a possibility that consumers may find that they are being slapped with a variety of charges and new fees. This is because creditors have already been implementing new fees aggressively or raising ones that already did exist to try to make up for any revenue that could be potential lost as a result of the CARD Act.

Some examples of these fees are Discover’s new 2% fee on all purchases made outside the United States, and a bump from 3% to 5% fee for rolling over a balance from one credit card to another.Because there are absolutely no restrictions on the types of fees creditors can hit you with, cardholders are cautioned to pay extra close attention to the “Terms and Conditions” section of their statement so they know what exactly they are being charged for.

In addition, credit will be harder to come by. The amount of credit that was available to consumers by card companies went down about 7% between March and September of last year. And it will only tighten further. According to the CARD Act, credit card companies are going to be extremely restricted in their marketing techniques that target college students, which can potentially cut down on an important part of their business.

So, consumers with a mediocre or bad credit history will find that it is much more difficult to obtain a card or have their credit limit extended.

Fewer rewards are also expected. Issuers are becoming more cheap with their rewards in an attempt to save money. For example, American Express told its consumers recently that they would not be able to accumulate reward points on their purchases if they were late with a payment. To avoid missing out, analysts caution that consumers should carefully read any notices they get from their credit card company about changes to their rewards or loyalty program.