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 .
