Two years later and the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act is still the hot topic of discussion. Consumers have felt the affect of the act in regards to hiked ATM fees and new monthly debit card charges. There are some benefits, in regards to clarifying language when applying to credit cards and more bank regulation.

But here are four things that you might not have known about the CARD Act:

1. The law caps interchange fees, not interest rates

Good credit card users get better credit cards and bad credit card users are not so fortunate. When you have a lower credit score you are at the mercy of credit card companies, and they can legally charge whatever the market will allows them to.

2. Interest Rates can still rise

The CARD Act prohibits banks from raising interest rates only in the first year after a credit card is issued. And there are some major exceptions. For variable-rate cards, banks can write in the contract that they have the ability to raise your interest rate when it`s tied to a publicly reported or prime rate. Interest rates can also increase if you are more than 60 days late.

3. They can charge you more with little notice

Under the CARD Act, banks are required to give 45 days notice before they increase a consumer`s rate. But the 45 days really refers to your payment due date, not the date of rate increase. What that really means is that if a credit card company does increase your rate, you have to make your first new payment at the higher rate in 45 days, but the CARD Act technically allows credit card issuers to charge consumers the higher rate 14 days after they`ve mailed the notice. "It`s a very confusing aspect of the CARD Act," said Linda Sherry, a credit card expert with Consumer Action.

4. It really can`t stop college marketing

This was one of the promises of the CARD Act. Under the act, college students were not to be targeted for credit cards until they were 21 years old. Students under 21 would have to show that they make "sufficient" income or get a co-signer for the card. Also, the act said that banks could not set up tables on college campuses or directly market to the youth.

"But what if a company goes next to a campus- say, a block or two away - and gives away freebies for filling out a credit card application?" he asks. "Guess what? 80% of the people there will still be students. So banks can get around it," he says of the CARD Act.