2005-2006 Bill 4997: Credit Cards - South Carolina Legislature Online

1 South Carolina General Assembly 2 116th Session, 2005-2006 3 4 H. 4997 5 6 STATUS INFORMATION 7 8 General Bill 9 Sponsors: Rep. Bowers 10 Document Path: l:\council\bills\bbm\9009mm06.doc 11 12 Introduced in the House on April 13, 2006 13 Currently residing in the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry 14 15 Summary: Credit cards 16 17 18 HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 19 20 Date Body Action Description with journal page number 21 4/13/2006 House Introduced and read first time HJ-7 22 4/13/2006 House Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry HJ-7 23 24 25 VERSIONS OF THIS BILL 26 27 4/13/2006 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A BILL 10 11 TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 12 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 39-5-185 SO AS TO PROVIDE 13 THAT IT IS AN UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE FOR THE 14 ISSUER OF AN UNSOLICITED CREDIT CARD TO CHARGE 15 AN ACTIVATION, ANNUAL, OR OTHER FEE UNLESS THE 16 CARDHOLDER BENEFITS FROM THE CARD BY USING IT 17 OR OTHERWISE AFFIRMATIVELY ACTS TO ACCEPT THE 18 UNSOLICITED OFFER OF THE USE OF THE CARD, TO 19 PROVIDE THAT NONPAYMENT OF THE FEE BY THE 20 CARDHOLDER, WITHOUT ANY OTHER ACT, IS A 21 REJECTION OF THE OFFER, AND TO DEFINE “CREDIT 22 CARD”. 23 24 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South 25 Carolina: 26 27 SECTION 1. Article 1, Chapter 5 of Title 39 of the 1976 Code is 28 amended by adding: 29 30 “Section 39-5-185. (A) It is an unfair or deceptive trade 31 practice pursuant to Section 39-5-20 for the issuer of an unsolicited 32 credit card to charge an activation, annual, or other fee for the use 33 of the card unless the cardholder: 34 (1) benefits from the card by using it; or 35 (2) otherwise affirmatively acts to accept the unsolicited 36 offer of the use of the card. 37 (B) Nonpayment of the activation, annual, or other fee by the 38 cardholder without an act described in (A)(1) or (2), is a rejection 39 of the unsolicited offer of the use of a credit card. 40 (C) ‘Credit card’ includes a lender credit card, as defined in 41 Section 37-1-301(16) and a seller credit card, as defined in Section 42 37-1-301(26).”

1 [4997] 1 1 2 SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the 3 Governor. 4 ----XX---- 5

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