Agency to Tackle Credit Card Woes

But more is yet to come. A financial reform package that was supported by AARP and became law in July 2011 established a new federal agency designed to protect consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened its doors in July 2011. Simplifying credit card contracts is among its top priorities, according to Elizabeth Warren, who helped create the agency.

Moreover, consumer advocates say the very existence of the agency will offer consumers something they've never had before — a government office to approach when they have a problem with their credit card issuer.

"It's quite extraordinary," says Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for Consumer Action. "This new bureau will actually be at bat for consumers."

It's too early, Sherry and other advocates say, to predict what the long-term results will be of the recent reforms and the new agency, but there's reason to be hopeful.

"[The CARD Act] didn't fix everything perfectly but it did take care of the major problems," says Lauren Bowne, a staff attorney at Consumers Union who focuses on financial issues. Similarly, Bowne says the financial reforms created a framework to establish further protections. She warns, however, that "credit card companies are always good at finding new ways to make money."

That's a lesson Sappington learned the hard way. Today, he's still working, a year after he expected to retire — a lingering result of all the debt he racked up.

"They were too available and for a time they did make things easy," Sappington says of credit cards. "Unfortunately, the more you put on them, the meaner they got."

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