Now that credit card reform passed, we have a whole new bunch of loopholes and gotcha's.

The Wall Street Journal describes the latest gouge and games credit card companies play.

the industry's median annual fee on bank credit cards jumped 18% to $59 between July 2009 and March 2010. At credit unions, annual fees soared 67% to $25. During the same period, the median cash-advance and balance-transfer fees jumped by 33%.

Of course finance companies created credit cards which are not covered by the Card Act, the new legislation supposedly to stop credit card companies from being the nastiest loan sharks on the block.

Other banks are ramping up their marketing of so-called professional cards. These are like corporate cards but can carry the same terms as consumer cards—and aren't covered under the new law. In the first quarter of this year, issuers sent out 47 million professional-card offers to U.S. households, up from 13.2 million in the corresponding period last year, according to research firm Synovate.

Some other innovations include rebate cards, which are also not covered under the Act.

The whole article is here.