Consumer groups said the rise would have forced rate payers pay too much of the cost.

He successfully forced rate reductions that won him widespread popularity.

Or it may be because new entrants seriously undercut the old monopoly prices (competition eventually forced rates down about 20 percent).

Some regulators have forced rates lower.

The sheer bulk of the offering - $3.5 billion as the first chunk of a $7 billion financing - could have flooded the market and forced rates higher.

But intense competition has forced rates down, both regular ones and introductory teasers, so far that banks and others in the business have increasingly tried to make up the revenue through fees, such as for late payments and over-the-limit spending.

The 4-to-1 vote was hailed by consumer groups, which have complained that the open-ended rate increase proposed by Gov. Gray Davis would have forced rate payers to foot too much of the costs of the crisis, which peaked in late spring.