2. Kids Under 21 Will No Longer Have Easy Access to Credit

The days of reps from credit-card companies offering free T-shirts and pizza to college students who apply for a card are coming to a close. The CARD Act prohibits issuers from extending credit to anyone under age 18, unless they are emancipated under state law or are designated as a secondary cardholder to a parent or legal guardian's account. Issuers must also limit the amount of credit they extend to applicants age 21 or younger to 20% of the cardholder's annual income or $500, whichever is greater. That's a far cry from the average $2,169 undergraduates currently carry, according to Nellie Mae, a federal student loan lender. “It'll keep kids from being inundated with offers for what they see as free money,” says Deborah Bosley, principal of The Plain Language Group in Charlotte, N.C., which advocates easy-to-understand financial disclosures.

To Prepare: If you want your teenager to have his own card instead of being an authorized user on yours, get an application in before February. Just make sure the card doesn't offer too much available credit or sky-high rates so they don't get themselves in trouble. (For more ways people with limited history can build credit, see our story here.)