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The legislation, which amends the Truth in Lending Act, is aimed at protecting US consumers from late fees and interest charges by making credit card companies more transparent about lending practices, Lauren Bell and Dianna Dilworth from Marketing Director US sister title DM News write.

For direct marketers looking to reach consumers, who will now have a more limited credit, there could be challenges.

"Direct marketers depend upon credit cards for sales, but particularly remote sales, since consumers can't just walk into a store with cash," said Linda Woolley, EVP for public affairs at the US Direct Marketing Association via e-mail.

"Anything that harms credit for consumers has a ripple effect on our members. However, bad debt also negatively affects our members through chargebacks, etc. We need a strong credit card system. Our hope is that this will do so, but we are not certain."

The new regulations and the changing marketplace will affect the direct marketing campaigns of credit card issuers - some of the largest direct mail advertisers.

Direct mail volume from card companies will almost certainly continue to fall, as it has since hitting a peak of 8.2 billion offers mailed in 2006. The reductions will be partly in the interest of cutting costs, but they also will be an effect of card issuers targeting a smaller universe of prospects.

"They are cutting back not only because they need to reduce their risk," explains Stephen Clifford, VP financial services, Mintel Comperemedia. "They are not sending offers to the riskier people that they have in the past because they need to reduce their losses."

Experian, provider of data and database marketing services to US banks, is gearing up for this more focused approach to targeting.

"We anticipate an increase in prospecting over the next three to 18 months, but with more importance placed on targeted and methodical selection of prospects that are low risk, credit qualified and will likely want to open a new card account in the near future," wrote Michele Bodda, VP, prospecting and acquisitions, Experian, in an e-mail to DMNews.

Clifford notes that, if US mail volume continues to fall at the rate seen in Q1 2009 (a 72% drop from Q1 2008), consumers may see fewer than two billion credit card offers being mailed this year.

Although the internet will remain an important channel for credit card marketers, Clifford said he does not foresee a huge rise in online advertising to make up for the drop in mail.

Nick Moore, the British-born chief creative officer at Wunderman New York, told Marketing Direct last month: "From a marketing perspective, [the new regulations will be] another angle to take into account for the brands of major financial institutions, be they banks, insurance companies or Wall Street. We're very conscious that the financial brands we work with need to be as transparent as possible in the long term process of rebuilding consumer trust."

The marketing of new cards in the US "has reduced considerably," Moore added. "We work with Citibank and the economics of their business has changed. We're trying to support them in this."