So I just got a lovely call from my credit card company, Capital One. It was a courtesy call and they wanted to make sure I know that the federal government has required them to call me. Why, because of the new credit card regulations that are taking effect in Feb.

She was letting me know that I now have an option when it comes to overages. I could stick with the way it is now or I could opt out. Not being sure what the current way was, I asked. I was informed that currently, as a courtesy, if I made a purchase on my card, but didn’t have the credit to cover the purchase, Capital One would accept the purchase and then simply charge me a fee to cover the purchase. In addition, if I decided to keep this option, Capital One would like to reduce the service fee they charge for this service. Instead of paying $39 per overage, I would only pay $29 for each overage.

So let me get this straight, I have a credit card with a $750 limit. If I try to spend $751 dollars, instead of declining the charge (like the good old days), they will accept the charge and add a $29 service fee.

So I asked her, “instead of charging me, why don’t you increase my spending limit?” Her response, “Well, you don’t qualify for a limit increase.” Really, so if I pay you $29 each time I want a temporary limit increase (which is basically what is happening) that’s fine?

My other option, it turned out, was to decline this service and in the event that I tried to charge something and didn’t have enough credit, the charge would be declined. Um…I thought that was how it worked in the first place. Call your credit card companies and make sure you opt out of this “feature”.

For more information on the reforms the credit card companies have to follow, check out this Frontline episode, your tax dollars paid for it anyway.