President Barack Obama signed a bill into law Monday that aims to regulate credit card companies and protect consumers.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, sponsored by Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., has five main goals, including banning unfair rate increases, preventing unfair fee traps, plain language disclosures, accountability for companies and protections for young people.

The bill ensures everyone who opens a new credit card will not have interest rate increases for the first year. It also prohibits credit card companies from retroactively increasing interest rates on balances, excluding pre-stated exceptions.

In addition, the bill requires credit card companies to notify consumers about their interest rate increases 45 days prior to the increase.

“For too long, credit card companies have had free rein to employ deceptive, unfair tactics that hit responsible consumers with unreasonable costs,” Obama said in a statement. “We are shifting the balance of power back to the consumer, and we are holding the credit card companies accountable.”

The bill also has specific protections in it for students, including a requirement that card companies and universities have to disclose agreements if they are marketing or distributing credit cards to students.

Rep. Baldwin sponsored the CARD Act because of the stories she has heard from her constituents about credit card companies taking advantage of consumers by increasing interest rates often without warning, said a statement from Baldwin’s office earlier this month.

“We’ve seen interest rates skyrocket and payment due dates changed with no warning or recourse for the consumer,” Baldwin said in an emailed statement to the Badger Herald. “Students are especially vulnerable to the offer of easy credit while unaware of the myriad [of] liabilities they incur.”

Baldwin said she believes credit card companies are financially exploiting their consumers with this type of behavior.

“While credit card companies are paying tens of millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses to their executives, working families and young people are going deeper and deeper into debt,” Baldwin said in the email.