“Credit card companies should not be permitted to use deceptive and unfair billing practices that can put financial security out of reach, especially for college students who are being forced to start their financial independence severely in the red,” Lowey, a Harrison Democrat, said in a written statement.

The average outstanding balance on the credit cards of college undergraduates is $2,169, and the average interest rate for standard bank credit cards topped 19 percent last year, according to Lowey.

Lowey criticized the industry for practices that include “universal default,” or interest rate increases based on a cardholder’s other accounts, and “double-cycle billing,” or assessing interest on all charges made in a month when the entire balance is not paid in full.

Companies also may offer introductory interest rates that rise dramatically without the cardholder’s knowledge.

The mobile-payment system, made possible through an agreement with Obopay Inc., a California-based mobile payment service, will give customers of banks that issue MasterCard debit or credit cards the ability to make money transfers via their cell phones using mobile numbers to send and receive funds.

Purchase-based MasterCard expects to test the system later this year and introduce the service in early 2009.

Shares of MasterCard fell in trading today, losing $8.59, or 2.9 percent, to $284.01.