There isn't anywhere, from mom and pop retailers to major store chains, where you can't use a credit card. That's made credit too easy for some people...who had trouble paying credit bills and incurred higher interest rates on their cards. A new law aims to protect consumers from sudden hikes in interest rates and fees, while restricting fees for people who exceed their credit limits.

But the head of Parkersburg's Consumer Credit Counseling Service fears it might have a negative effect on many Mid-Ohio Valley residents.

"What's going to happen is that the credit card companies are going to be tighter on giving credit cards to low-income families," says Executive Director Pam Dowler. "It's no matter if you do have good credit. They're going to look at that in a stronger asset in terms of handing them out. And if you do get it, you're going to pay a higher interest rate."

Dowler says the people who might benefit from the new law are college students...the people often targeted as new customers by credit card companies. Issuers won't be able to give them a card until they're 21, unless they have a job or a co-signer, such as their parents.

"That's going to stop them from setting up tables at the college campuses, and handing out credit card applications (in exchange) for a two-liter bottle of pop or a free pizza," Dowler says. "And it's going to stop kids from going into $7-9,000 debt, on credit cards before they get out of college."

In August, another provision of the law is to go into effect, offering people who by then have paid off their existing bills a chance to get a break on interest rates.

Dowler notes the new laws mean the "no annual fee" used by card issuers for years to attract new customers, probably will no longer be in effect.

And credit card companies already have responded to the new law by increasing their interest rates...and creating new fees for card use.