Thanks to the efforts of some industry groups, it may be a little easier to sell that new central air conditioner this summer.
In the world of lawmaking, there are often unintended consequences. Too often, they're not discovered until a law goes into effect.
I can't completely blame lawmakers, whether they're in Congress or at the state or local levels (although in the case of state and federal officials, they usually have a cadre of attorneys who are supposed to go over all this stuff when a bill is drafted or in committee).
Fortunately for the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and any business that uses same-as-cash financing promotions, this problem was discovered before it was too late.
As drafted, the rules sought by President Barack Obama to reform the credit card lending practices of U.S. banks would have outlawed the very common practice of "same as cash," where homeowners typically can pay for large purchases over a few months without accruing interest charges.
Such a rule could have severely hurt the nation’s residential HVAC contractors, furniture retailers or any business that relies on credit to help buyers afford their big-ticket purchases.
The efforts of the ACCA and other groups led to government officials clarifying that same-as-cash promotions could continue as long as they did not include the deceptive practices the administration was seeking to ban.
You can read all about it here .
In the world of lawmaking, there are often unintended consequences. Too often, they're not discovered until a law goes into effect.
I can't completely blame lawmakers, whether they're in Congress or at the state or local levels (although in the case of state and federal officials, they usually have a cadre of attorneys who are supposed to go over all this stuff when a bill is drafted or in committee).
Fortunately for the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and any business that uses same-as-cash financing promotions, this problem was discovered before it was too late.
As drafted, the rules sought by President Barack Obama to reform the credit card lending practices of U.S. banks would have outlawed the very common practice of "same as cash," where homeowners typically can pay for large purchases over a few months without accruing interest charges.
Such a rule could have severely hurt the nation’s residential HVAC contractors, furniture retailers or any business that relies on credit to help buyers afford their big-ticket purchases.
The efforts of the ACCA and other groups led to government officials clarifying that same-as-cash promotions could continue as long as they did not include the deceptive practices the administration was seeking to ban.
You can read all about it here .