Anticipating the February trigger of the Credit CARD Act's final phase, banks have dramatically raised interest rates, imposed new fees, jacked up old fees, and changed terms, a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts says. In fact, 100 percent of cards issued by the nation's 12 largest banks used practices that would be considered "unfair and deceptive" under the new law, the report says. 

The report, which follows up on a similar study done in the spring, shows rampant anti-consumer activity:

•Nearly all (99.7 percent) of bank cards allowed the issuer to raise interest rates on outstanding balances by changing the account agreement unilaterally. That's up from 93 percent last December.

•95 percent of cards allowed issuers to apply payments in a manner that the Federal Reserve found "likely to cause substantial monetary injury to consumers." (The other 5 percent weren't necessarily good guys; they just didn't disclose their policies.)

•The median late fee remained unchanged, at $39. Eighty percent of bank cards also charged a $39 overlimit fee. The median penalty rate was $28.99 percent; 90 percent of banks allowed that rate to continue even after the consumer resumed on-time payments. 

•Credit unions, another option for consumers, offered interest rates between 9.9 and 13.75 percent, about 20 percent lower than comparable bank rates. And their penalties were generally less severe than those of banks. Most credit unions levied late and overlimit fees of $20. 

The report recommends consumers consider obtaining cards from credit unions, though they represent only 1 percent of the credit-card market. Consumer Reports does the same; read more of our tips on finding good credit cards. And here's some sage advice from Consumer Reports Money Adviser on the right way to pay off your credit-card debt.

Some members of Congress have introduced legislation to rein in credit-card issuers now. Click here to tell your Congressperson to speed up the Credit CARD Act's effective date to Dec. 1, 2009. And feel free to comment below on what you've experienced.  As comments on our previous credit-card blogs show, consumers are outraged with the banks' ugly last hurrah.–Tobie Stanger