This Week in Credit News: Uncle Sam Gives Back

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This week brought some great news for borrowers, with several government agencies showing their most consumer-friendly sides and making strides to improve credit availability and transparency.

As we mentioned in last week’s roundup, banks were not so happy about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s decision to publish an interactive data set of credit card complaints it has received from consumers. But that didn’t stop the government agency from going live with the database on Tuesday.

The CFPB tool is in beta, meaning that it only contains a small selection of the data, although the CFPB plans on improving the tool and possibly including even more metrics in the database.

In the next installment of our “Best Credit Cards in America” series, we named the three credit cards with the best travel rewards.

Winners are chosen by how well each card scores based on a unique 41-factor formula. The higher the score, the better the card is considered to be. The formula gives each card a “benefits/rewards score” and then subtracts the “costs score.”

The winning card was PenFed Premium Travel Rewards From American Express, followed closely by the Capital One VentureOne Rewards card and the Capital One Venture Rewards card.

Fed Extends “Twist” Program to Spur Growth

The Federal Open Market Committee met this week for two days, finally concluding that it would add even more money to “Operation Twist” — the Federal Reserve’s attempt to lower interest rates on long-term loans and spur economic consumption.

The additional $267 billion is good news to homebuyers and borrowers in general, as the Fed says it predicts that interest rates will remain low through 2014.

The Federal Housing Administration rescinded a rule this week that would have kept many prospective homebuyers from getting loans.

The $1,000 credit dispute rule was put in place to ensure that FHA funds would be protected from borrowers who may not be as creditworthy, but after builders and other housing advocates made a case for rolling back the rule that took effect April 1, the FHA conceded. Prospective buyers with more than $1,000 in disputed bills would have been barred from obtaining loans under the rule.

Image: NS Newsflash, via Flickr