SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) _ New credit card protections went into effect on Sunday.

But some experts believe the banks still hold all the cards.

The legislation was actually passed earlier this year, with this just the latest and final phase to be implemented.

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The aim, all along, was to reel in the banks that were charging exorbitant amounts of money for things like late payments.

Jordan Goodman, a personal finance expert said even card inactivity is addressed in this new law, but not well enough in his opinion.

“If you don’t use your credit card, they would be charging a fee,” Goodman said. “So what the banks have done is gone around that and said now they’re going to have a minimum use fee. So if you don’t charge, for example, $2500 on a card during a year, than they can charge you an annual fee. To me, it’s the same idea.”

Goodman said it’s a case of the bank lobby still having too much influence over legislation. In fact, he said as soon as this measure was passed, many institutions started ramping up their interest rates in order to recoup the costs that they were going to lose down the line, estimated to be $20 billion by some.

“It used to be in the old days, 20 percent was considered a high rate on a credit card,” said Goodman. “Now you feel lucky to get 18 percent. A lot of rates are at 25-29 percent.”

He said the best bet is to always spend money that you have and stay out of debt by paying off your credit card bills each month.