If you'd like to stop the credit-card industry in its tracks, head to Consumers Union's advocacy Web site, CreditCardReform.org. There, you'll find a suggested e-mail text to send to your Representative, encouraging passage of H.R. 3639, an accelerated trigger date for the Credit CARD Act of 2009, as well a support for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with wide-ranging benefits for financial-product consumers. 

The Maloney-Frank bill expedites the trigger date for the Credit CARD Act to December 1 of this year, ahead of the original date of Feb. 22, 2010. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, and Barney Frank, D-Ma., is a response to consumers' gripes that credit card companies are hiking interest rates, adding fees, and raising minimum payments to avoid the Credit CARD Act's more consumer-friendly rules.

In a similar move, Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., yesterday proposed freezing interest rates on existing card-balances. 

What do you think of these proposals? Have you told your Representative how you feel?