Dan Maffei, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a news conference Wednesday by House of Representatives members on Capitol Hill in Washington. Other supporters of credit-card a reform law are, from left, New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison and North Carolina Republican Walter Jones. (Harry Hamburg/Associated Press)

The U.S. Congress wrapped up legislation on credit cards Wednesday and sent it to President Barack Obama, who plans to sign it on Friday.

The bill will revolutionize the market by restricting when and how a card company can raise an individual's interest rate, who can receive a card and how much time people are given to pay their bill.

In general, the new rules, which go into effect in nine months, will protect debt-ridden consumers from many of the surprise charges common in the industry, such as over-the-limit fees and costs for paying a bill by phone.

"This cements a victory for every American consumer who has ever suffered at the hands of the credit card industry," said Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the U.S. Senate's banking committee. But there will be losers, too.

Banks, which oppose the legislation, will need to make up the cost somewhere, and cardholders who pay off their balance in full each month could see new annual fees and lucrative rewards programs cancelled.

Credit could become harder to come by, too. Some of the changes, including a requirement that cardholders receive 45 days' notice before their rates are raised, are already on track to take effect in July 2010 under new regulations by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The legislation would put these changes into law and go farther in restricting when and how banks charge people and who could get a card.

For example, the bill would require people under age 21 to prove first that they can repay the money or that a parent or guardian is willing to pay off their debt if they default.

The U.S. House passed the reform bill by a 361-64 vote on Wednesday. The Senate had voted 90-5 for the measure on Tuesday.

In Canada, Finance Minster Jim Flaherty is empowered to make regulatory changes with respect to credit cards.

He is expected to announce new rules as early as Thursday that will guarantee consumers a set grace period to pay — likely 21 days from the moment of purchase — and that will tighten rules on debt collection and enforce plain-language disclosure on credit card agreements.

"We're going to have new regulatory changes that will make an awful lot of sense," Conservative parliamentary secretary Rick Dykstra told CBC News on Wednesday.

"We're augmenting a very well run banking institution and we're just going to make it that much better."