Bill Text: CA SB1355 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Credit cards: billing inquiries.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-03-17 - Referred to Com. on JUD. [SB1355 Detail]
Download: California-2013-SB1355-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 1355 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Wyland
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
An act to amend Section 1747.02 of the Civil Code, relating to
credit cards.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1355, as introduced, Wyland. Credit cards: billing inquiries.
Existing state and federal law regulates the provision of credit
and the use of credit cards. The Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971
generally regulates credit card transactions and includes
definitions of terms used in this law. Under existing law, a credit
card issuer that fails to give a timely response to an inquiry of a
cardholder concerning any debit or credit applicable to an obligation
incurred through the use of a credit card is not entitled to
specified interest, finance charges, service charges, or other
charges thereon. Existing law defines "inquiry" as a writing mailed
to the card issuer that is received by the card issuer no later than
60 days after the card issuer transmitted the first periodic
statement with the alleged billing error, as specified.
This bill would increase the amount of time a credit cardholder is
allowed to dispute a billing error, by increasing the current 60
days to one year.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1747.02 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
1747.02. As used in this title:
(a) "Credit card" means any card, plate, coupon book, or other
single credit device existing for the purpose of being used from time
to time upon presentation to obtain money, property, labor, or
services on credit. "Credit card" does not mean any of the following:
(1) Any single credit device used to obtain telephone property,
labor, or services in any transaction under public utility tariffs.
(2) Any device that may be used to obtain credit pursuant to an
electronic fund transfer, but only if the credit is obtained under an
agreement between a consumer and a financial institution to extend
credit when the consumer's asset account is overdrawn or to maintain
a specified minimum balance in the consumer's asset account.
(3) Any key or card key used at an automated dispensing outlet to
obtain or purchase petroleum products, as defined in subdivision (c)
of Section 13401 of the Business and Professions Code, that will be
used primarily for business rather than personal or family purposes.
(b) "Accepted credit card" means any credit card that the
cardholder has requested or applied for and received or has signed,
or has used, or has authorized another person to use, for the purpose
of obtaining money, property, labor, or services on credit. Any
credit card issued in renewal of, or in substitution for, an accepted
credit card becomes an accepted credit card when received by the
cardholder, whether the credit card is issued by the same or a
successor card issuer.
(c) "Card issuer" means any person who issues a credit card or the
agent of that person for that purpose with respect to the credit
card.
(d) "Cardholder" means a natural person to whom a credit card is
issued for consumer credit purposes, or a natural person who has
agreed with the card issuer to pay consumer credit obligations
arising from the issuance of a credit card to another natural person.
For purposes of Sections 1747.05, 1747.10, and 1747.20, the term
includes any person to whom a credit card is issued for any purpose,
including business, commercial, or agricultural use, or a person who
has agreed with the card issuer to pay obligations arising from the
issuance of that credit card to another person.
(e) "Retailer" means every person other than a card issuer who
furnishes money, goods, services, or anything else of value upon
presentation of a credit card by a cardholder. "Retailer" shall not
mean the state, a county, city, city and county, or any other public
agency.
(f) "Unauthorized use" means the use of a credit card by a person,
other than the cardholder, (1) who does not have actual, implied, or
apparent authority for that use and (2) from which the cardholder
receives no benefit. "Unauthorized use" does not include the use of a
credit card by a person who has been given authority by the
cardholder to use the credit card. Any attempted termination by the
cardholder of the person's authority is ineffective as against the
card issuer until the cardholder complies with the procedures
required by the card issuer to terminate that authority.
Notwithstanding the above, following the card issuer's receipt of
oral or written notice from a cardholder indicating that it wishes to
terminate the authority of a previously authorized user of a credit
card, the card issuer shall follow its usual procedures for
precluding any further use of a credit card by an unauthorized
person.
(g) An "inquiry" is a writing that is posted by mail to the
address of the card issuer to which payments are normally tendered,
unless another address is specifically indicated on the statement for
that purpose, then to that other address, and that is received by
the card issuer no later than 60 days one
year after the card issuer transmitted the first periodic
statement that reflects the alleged billing error, and that does all
of the following:
(1) Sets forth sufficient information to enable the card issuer to
identify the cardholder and the account.
(2) Sufficiently identifies the billing error.
(3) Sets forth information providing the basis for the cardholder'
s belief that the billing error exists.
(h) A "response" is a writing that is responsive to an inquiry and
mailed to the cardholder's address last known to the card issuer.
(i) A "timely response" is a response that is mailed within two
complete billing cycles, but in no event later than 90 days, after
the card issuer receives an inquiry.
(j) A "billing error" means an error by omission or commission in
(1) posting any debit or credit, or (2) in computation or similar
error of an accounting nature contained in a statement given to the
cardholder by the card issuer. A "billing error" does not mean any
dispute with respect to value, quality, or quantity of goods,
services, or other benefit obtained through use of a credit card.
(k) "Adequate notice" means a printed notice to a cardholder that
sets forth the pertinent facts clearly and conspicuously so that a
person against whom it is to operate could reasonably be expected to
have noticed it and understood its meaning.
( l ) "Secured credit card" means any credit card
issued under an agreement or other instrument that pledges,
hypothecates, or places a lien on real property or money or other
personal property to secure the cardholder's obligations to the card
issuer.
(m) "Student credit card" means any credit card that is provided
to a student at a public or private college or university and is
provided to that student solely based on his or her enrollment in a
public or private university, or is provided to a student who would
not otherwise qualify for that credit card on the basis of his or her
income. A "student credit card" does not include a credit card
issued to a student who has a cocardholder or cosigner who would
otherwise qualify for a credit card other than a student credit card.
(n) "Retail motor fuel dispenser" means a device that dispenses
fuel that is used to power internal combustion engines, including
motor vehicle engines, that processes the sale of fuel through a
remote electronic payment system, and that is in a location where an
employee or other agent of the seller is not present.
(o) "Retail motor fuel payment island automated cashier" means a
remote electronic payment processing station that processes the
retail sale of fuel that is used to power internal combustion
engines, including motor vehicle engines, that is in a location where
an employee or other agent of the seller is not present, and that is
located in close proximity to a retail motor fuel dispenser.
