CONSUMER ADVOCATES URGE CONGRESS TO REIN IN CREDIT CARD COMPANIES.(Brief article)

Credit card company critics urged the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to limit the rates and fees that credit card companies can impose on consumers, saying the industry's tactics contribute to many Americans' debt. The comments were made during the first consumer-oriented hearings of the new Congress, as the committee looks to find ways to tighten rules related to the credit card industry's billing, marketing and disclosure practices. Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) has long sought to clamp down on the industry. In 2005, Dodd sponsored a proposal that would have outlawed universal default, the practice of raising interest rates on a credit …