whitehouse

Got a gripe about your credit-card company? U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wants to hear it.

He will hold a field hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee at 2 p.m. today at Rhode Island College in Providence.

The hearing will focus mainly on proposed changes to federal bankruptcy law that could help reduce consumers’ credit costs and encourage credit-card companies to keep rates reasonable.

The hearing will be “informal and educational,” said Whitehouse, a member of the committee. “I’m hoping to learn more about the issue,” he said in a telephone interview.

After the main part of the hearing, Whitehouse will preside at a question-and-answer session with consumers.

And that’s where you come in.

Whitehouse said he is concerned about what he calls the predatory practices of some credit-card companies — exorbitant interest rates, sky-high fees and other measures that wind up punishing consumers.

“The average credit-card consumer is at the tail end of a very long story [that often involves] predatory manipulation,” Whitehouse said.

“For too long, the credit-card industry has had too little opposition,” he said.

The question-and-answer portion of today’s hearing is a chance for consumers “to share their stories, what’s going on in their lives with an issue he’s focused on,” said Whitehouse spokeswoman Alex Swartsel.

“We can’t always resolve people’s problems, but at least we can listen,” she said.

Whitehouse held a somewhat similar gathering in July, at the Urban League of Rhode Island, a community group based in Providence’s Upper South Providence section.

The point then was to learn firsthand about how some Rhode Islanders were struggling with high-interest debts amid the nation’s widening credit crisis.

By attending today’s hearing, and “just sharing their concerns and their problems” at the question-and-answer session, consumers can help Whitehouse learn more about issues that directly affect them — issues that could help shape future legislation, Swartsel said.

The national recession underscores the need to help and protect Rhode Island families, and makes the hearing “even more important” and timely, Whitehouse said.

In July, he introduced legislation, the Consumer Credit Fairness Act, to try to provide consumers with some relief from high interest rates.

Under the proposal, if a consumer were to enter bankruptcy proceedings, creditors that charge excessive interest rates and fees would not begin to receive repayment until all other creditors were paid in full.

The measure would also offer additional relief to consumers pushed into bankruptcy as the result of loans that carry excessively high interest rates or fees.

Today’s hearing will include national experts in lending and bankruptcy law, who’ll analyze the proposed legislation and talk about other ways to explore credit-card reform through bankruptcy law.

“With working families in Rhode Island and across the country stretched thin by lower incomes and fewer jobs, interest rates that can climb well above 25 or 30 percent are excessive, unnecessary and harmful both to family budgets and our economy,” Whitehouse said in a statement.

“It’s time to send a strong message to abusive lenders that they will no longer be able to take advantage of consumers without facing significant consequences,” he added.

The formal part of the hearing starts at 2 p.m. in the auditorium at William C. Gaige Hall on the Rhode Island College campus, 600 Mount Pleasant Ave., Providence.

Depending on how long that portion of the hearing takes, the question-and-answer session could start sometime after 4 p.m.

The entire hearing, titled “Credit Cards and Bankruptcy: Opportunities for Reform,” is free and open to the public.

ndowning@projo.com