Even though the vast majority of credit unions never abused credit card holders the way many big bank issuers did, credit union card programs were nonetheless significantly changed by the 2009 legislation meant to correct those abuses.

President Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act in May of 2009, but most of the law's mandated changes didn't go into effect until 2010. Ironically, by curbing the big card issuer practices most decried by consumer advocates, Congress effectively transformed their card programs into ones that looked a lot closer to CU card programs. The new law banned such practices as double-cycle billing, most teaser or promotional annual percentage rates and mandated changes to the information card issuers provided cardholders.

Most credit union card issuers had no trouble with most of the law-they had never done any of those things. But other of the law's requirements changed how CUs handled their card programs as well.