Congress locks in $8 credit card late-fee cap, blocking future rollback
S. 3660 — Credit Card Fairness Act · Filed by John Fetterman (D-PA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Truth in Lending Act to codify and enforce the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's late-fee rule for credit cards. It caps late fees charged by large credit card issuers (those with 1+ million open accounts) at $8, adjusted annually for inflation, and requires that fees not exceed the issuer's actual costs—preventing issuers from profiting on late fees. The bill also clarifies that the CFPB's original rule was a valid exercise of its authority.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to cap and regulate credit card late fees charged to consumers, codifying an existing CFPB rule into statute. This is straightforward consumer protection legislation, not a hidden rider or complex financial mechanism.
What the text implies
- Codification into statute makes the late-fee rule harder to rescind via future regulatory action or CRA disapproval—it now requires legislative amendment to change.
- The $8 cap may incentivize issuers to increase other fees (annual fees, foreign transaction fees, balance-transfer fees) to offset lost late-fee revenue, shifting cost to different consumer behaviors.
- Venue restriction to D.C. District Court (subsection 3(4)) may deter small-scale challenges and concentrate litigation power, though it also prevents forum-shopping by issuers.
- The bill requires the CFPB to release research publicly before rulemaking, increasing transparency but potentially exposing the agency's analytical methods to industry pre-emptive challenge.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Consumers directly benefit from lower late fees (capped at $8 instead of current $25–$40+ in many cases) and the prohibition on issuers profiting from late fees. The cap is indexed to inflation, protecting the benefit over time. Large credit card issuers bear the cost through reduced fee revenue.
Named in the bill
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Large credit card issuers, Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Regulation Z (12 CFR Part 1026), Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Democrats.
- Jan 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 15, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,190,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 38 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
John Fetterman, the sponsor, reported $40,875 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Jpmorgan Chase Holdings LLC — $1,190,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,724 characters) on May 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress locks in $8 credit card late-fee cap, blocking future rollback” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3660 Report an error
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