New legislation aims to end a lot of controversial practices that exploded in the news recently. Gone perhaps are the days of massive (percentage-wise) fees for over-drawing accounts. Gone are the days of banks retroactively raising a customer's interest rates without notice. Banks will no longer be allowed to set odd payment deadlines that work against the consumer. 

Forbes notes a study from the Pew Trust's Safe Credit Card project that the new legislation, which goes live this month, "will save U.S. consumers approximately $10 billion a year in fees." But the flip side of that is the industry's move to get ahead of the new regulations by hiking rates and imposing other fees. A raft of new fees is likely on the way, as banks seek to make up the lost revenue.

The whole idea of free checking may go away. Chase raised the cost of a balance transfer to 5 percent from 3 percent and told some customers that they will be hit with a $90 fee if they don't charge at least $2,400 a year to their cards. So this legislation may solve some problems, but the solution will hardly be free. The winners in all this may be big spending customers with solid credit ratings. Bloomberg notes they are now coveted, and banks will do much to retain them. Rewards programs are certainly not going away. 

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