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With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama signed a consumer bill of rights last month, ending what Adam Levin of Credit.com calls the credit card companies' "reign of terror."

"You had a certain set of duties and they could do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it, using whatever excuse they wanted to use, including 'We did it because we could,'" says Levin.

But Levin says those days are gone. Under the new rules, companies will not be able to raise your rate during the first year of your account. Borrowers need to be at least 60 days behind on their payments before a rate can be increased and should they pay on time for the next six months, the original rate must be restored.

Also, should there be a change, the bank needs to notify the consumer 45 days in advance.

"Anything that is a change in your credit card needs to be announced loud and clear along with why," says consumer attorney Tracy Shelton of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "It has to be clearly explained and there has to be real reasons."

Those reasons also need to be specific to the particular credit card. In the past, banks could raise your rate based on something you did somewhere else, like failing to pay your phone or cable bill. That practice, called universal default, is now forbidden.

The new rules also restrict when and how lenders can market their cards to college students and people under the age of 21.

"They need to be able to show some kind of creditworthiness, some kind of ability to repay the debt that they may incur or get it co-signed by their parents, which has not been the case," says Shelton.

Experts say while credit card companies will be restricted by the new rules, there are still plenty of charges they can levy on consumers to make up for what they are losing in interest payments.

"They have foreign currency fees, they have foreign transaction fees, they have balance transfer fees, they have late fees, they have over-limit fees, they have ATM fees," says Levin.

"The credit card companies have great ways of coming up with new ways to charge consumers extra money, so there will be something else coming down the pike that everyone should watch out for," says Shelton.

Advocates warn that the bill is not a silver bullet that will solve the nation's debt problems, but they say it is a step in the right direction.

"Any time you can get greater certainty and greater transparency in the financial services system, that's a win for consumers," says Levin.

The new rules take effect next February.