Title 37, Consumer Protection Code

If any provision of this title or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this title which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the prov…

Except for Section 37-3-512 and except where Chapter 29 of Title 34 is amended by specific reference thereto, insofar as restricted lenders and restricted loans are concerned any inconsistency or conflict between any provision of this title and Chapter 29 of Title 34 shall be res…

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this title, a buyer, lessee, or debtor may not waive or agree to forego rights or benefits under this title. (2) A claim by a buyer, lessee, or debtor against a creditor for an excess charge, other violation of this title, or civil penalty, or …

(1) This title prescribes maximum charges for all creditors, except lessors and those excluded (Section 37-1-202), extending consumer credit including consumer credit sales (Section 37-2-104), and consumer loans (Section 37-3-104), and displaces existing limitations on the powers…

(1) From time to time the dollar amounts in this title shall change, as provided in this section, according to and to the extent of changes in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: U. S. City Average, All Items, 1967=100, compiled by the Bureau of …

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, this title applies to consumer credit transactions made in this State. For purposes of this title, a consumer credit transaction is made in this State if: (a) a signed writing evidencing the obligation or offer of the consumer is …

Except as otherwise provided, this title does not apply to: (1) extensions of credit to government or governmental agencies or instrumentalities; (2) the sale of insurance by an insurer, except as otherwise provided in the chapter on insurance (Chapter 4) [Sections 37-4-101 et se…

(1) Subject to constitutional and statutory jurisdictional limitations, the courts of this State may exercise jurisdiction over any person with respect to any conduct in this State governed by this title or with respect to any claim arising from a transaction subject to this titl…

In addition to definitions appearing in subsequent articles, in this title: (1) "Actuarial method" means the method, defined by rules adopted by the administrator, of allocating payments made on a debt between principal or amount financed and loan finance charge or credit service…

In this title "Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act" means the Consumer Credit Protection Act (Public Law 90-321: 82 Stat. 146), as amended from time to time, and includes regulations issued under the act. Title I of the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act is referred to thr…

Definitions in this title and the sections in which they appear are: "Actuarial method" - Section 37-1-301(1) "Administrator" - Section 37-1-301(2) "Administrator" - Section 37-6-103 "Agreement" - Section 37-1-301(3) "Agricultural purpose" - Section 37-1-301(4) "Alternative mortg…

(A) As used in this section: (1) "Child pornography" means any material depicting a person under the age of eighteen years doing or assisting in doing an act or thing constituting an offense pursuant to Chapter 15, Title 16 and involving any material, act, or thing that is obscen…

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as South Carolina Consumer Protection Code - Credit Sales.

This chapter applies to consumer credit sales, including home solicitation sales, and consumer leases; Sections 37-2-307 and 37-2-308 of Part 3 apply to the sale of motor vehicles; in addition, Part 6 applies to other than consumer credit sales and Part 7 applies to consumer rent…

The following definitions apply to this title and appear in this chapter as follows: "Amount financed" - Section 37-2-111 "Cash price" - Section 37-2-110 "Consumer credit sale" - Section 37-2-104 "Consumer lease" - Section 37-2-106 "Credit service charge" - Section 37-2-109 "Good…

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), "consumer credit sale" is a sale of goods, services, or an interest in land in which: (a) credit is granted by a person who regularly engages as a seller in credit transactions of the same kind; (b) the buyer is a person other than an org…

(1) "Goods" includes goods not in existence at the time the transaction is entered into and merchandise certificates, but excludes money, chattel paper, documents of title, and instruments. (2) "Merchandise certificate" means a writing issued by a seller not redeemable in cash an…

(1) "Consumer lease" means a lease of goods: (a) which a lessor regularly engaged in the business of leasing makes to a person, other than an organization, who takes under a lease primarily for a personal, family or household purpose; (b) in which the amount payable under the lea…

Except as otherwise provided, "seller" includes an assignee of the seller's right to payment but use of the term does not in itself impose on an assignee any obligation of the seller with respect to events occurring before the assignment.

"Revolving charge account" means an arrangement between a seller and a buyer pursuant to which: (1) the seller may permit the buyer to purchase goods or services on credit either from the seller or pursuant to a seller credit card; (2) the unpaid balances of amounts financed aris…

"Credit service charge" means the sum of: (1) all charges payable directly or indirectly by the buyer and imposed directly or indirectly by the seller as an incident to the extension of credit, including any of the following types of charges which are applicable: time price diffe…

Except as the administrator may otherwise prescribe by rule, the "cash price" of goods, services, or an interest in land means the price at which goods, services, or interest in land are offered for sale by the seller to cash buyers in the ordinary course of business, and may inc…

"Amount financed" means the total of the following items to the extent that payment is deferred: (1) the cash price of the goods, services or interest in land, less the amount of any down payment whether made in cash or in property traded in; (2) the amount actually paid or to be…

(1) With respect to a consumer credit sale, including a sale pursuant to a revolving charge account, a seller may contract for and receive a credit service charge not exceeding that permitted by this section. (2) The credit service charge, calculated according to the actuarial me…

(1) In addition to the credit service charge permitted by this part, a creditor may contract for and receive the following additional charges: (a) official fees and taxes; (b) charges for insurance as described in subsection (2); (c) with respect to open-end credit pursuant to a …

(1) With respect to a consumer credit sale including an open-end consumer credit sale pursuant to a seller credit card, and any refinancings or consolidations of all such credit sales, the parties may contract for a delinquency charge on any installment not paid in full within te…

(1) In this section and in the provisions on rebate upon prepayment (Section 37-2-210) the following defined terms apply with respect to a precomputed consumer credit sale: (a) "Computational period" means (i) the interval between scheduled due dates of installments under the tra…

With respect to a consumer credit sale, refinancing, or consolidation, the seller may by agreement with the buyer refinance the unpaid balance and may contract for and receive a credit service charge based on the amount financed resulting from the refinancing at a rate not exceed…

If a buyer owes an unpaid balance to a seller with respect to a consumer credit sale, refinancing, or consolidation, and becomes obligated on another consumer credit sale, refinancing, or consolidation with the same seller, the parties may agree to a consolidation resulting in a …

(1) With respect to a consumer credit sale made pursuant to a revolving charge account, the parties to the sale may contract for the payment by the buyer of a credit service charge not exceeding that permitted in this section but, if they do not so contract in writing no charge s…

(1) If the agreement with respect to a consumer credit sale, refinancing, or consolidation contains covenants by the buyer to perform certain duties pertaining to insuring or preserving collateral and the seller pursuant to the agreement pays for performance of the duties on beha…

Subject to the provisions on rebate upon prepayment (Section 37-2-210), the buyer may prepay in full the unpaid balance of a consumer credit sale refinancing or consolidation at any time without penalty.

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, upon prepayment in full of a precomputed consumer credit sale, refinancing or consolidation entered into after September 28, 1976, the creditor shall rebate to the consumer an amount not less than the unearned portion of the credi…

A person upon whom the Federal Truth in Lending Act imposes duties or obligations shall make or give to the consumer the disclosures, information and notices required of him by that act and in all respects comply with that act.

(1) The creditor shall deliver or mail to the consumer, without request, a written receipt for each payment by coin or currency on an obligation pursuant to a consumer credit sale. A periodic statement showing a payment received by mail complies with this subsection. (2) Upon wri…

(1) A natural person, other than the spouse of the consumer, is not obligated as a cosigner, comaker, guarantor, indorser, surety, or similar party with respect to a consumer credit sale, unless before or contemporaneously with signing any separate agreement of obligation or any …

(1) A seller or lessor may not advertise, print, display, publish, distribute, broadcast, or cause to be advertised, printed, displayed, published, distributed, or broadcast in any manner any statement or representation with regard to the rates, terms, or conditions of credit wit…

(1) Every creditor (Section 37-1-301(13)), intending to impose a credit service charge in excess of eighteen percent per annum other than an assignee of a credit obligation, making consumer credit sales (Section 37-2-104) in this State on or before the effective date of this sect…

(A) Every creditor engaged in this State in making consumer credit sales pursuant to a seller credit card shall: (1) file on or before January thirty-first of each year with the Department of Consumer Affairs for every seller card plan it offers to South Carolina residents the di…

(A) As used in this section: (1) A closing fee is defined as a fee for recovery of a motor vehicle dealer's actual costs for all administrative and financial work needed to transfer and deliver the motor vehicle to the consumer including, but not limited to, compliance with all s…

(A) As used in this section, unless the context requires otherwise, the term: (1) "Advertisement" means an oral, written, graphic, or pictorial statement made in the course of soliciting for the sale or lease of a motor vehicle in a newspaper, magazine, or on radio, television, o…

(A) An estimate of the disclosures required by Section 37-2-301 is required in connection with a credit sale of a purchaser-occupied manufactured home not less than two days before the consummation of the transaction as defined in 12 C.F.R. Section 226.2(a)(13). The estimated dis…

This part applies to consumer credit sales and consumer leases.

A seller may not use multiple agreements with respect to a single consumer credit sale with intent to obtain a higher rate of credit service charge than would otherwise be permitted by the provisions on credit service charges for consumer credit sales (Section 37-2-201). The exce…

With respect to a consumer credit sale or consumer lease, the creditor may not take a negotiable instrument other than a check dated not later than ten days after its issuance as evidence of the obligation of the consumer.

(1) With respect to a consumer credit sale or consumer lease, an assignee of the rights of the seller or lessor is subject to all claims and defenses of the consumer against the seller or lessor arising from the sale or lease of property or services, notwithstanding that the assi…