Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 85.djvu/698

 668

64 Stat. 873. 12 USC 1813.

PUBLIC LAW 92-200-DEC. 17, 1971

[85 STAT.

from a seller pursuant to a retail credit sale and not principally for the purpose of resale; and includes a person who enters into a prior agreement with a financial institution whereby the latter agrees to pay the debts of the buyer as they accrue at various retail sellers, designated by the financial institution, in consideration of the buyer paying to the financial institution the cash sales price plus the credit service charge on the purchase. "(5) 'person' includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, trust, joint stock company, or any other group of persons however organized. "(6) 'financial institution' means a person who enters into an agreement with a buyer whereby the former agrees to extend credit to the buyer and to apply it as directed by the buyer pursuant to a credit card issued to the buyer by the financial institution; and this term includes any federally insured bank as defined in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act doing business ij^ tj^^ District of Columbia. " (a) The seller or financial institution may contract for the payment by the buyer of a credit service charge not exceeding that permitted by this section. "(b) A credit service charge may be made in each billing cycle. For the purpose of computing the outstanding balance subject to the credit service charge, (1) the outstanding balance on any day shall consist of an amount which shall not exceed the sum of the total charges to the account less the amounts paid or credited to the account prior to such day, or (2) the outstanding balance may be computed by the average daily balance method. The credit service charge may also be computed for all outstanding balances within a range of not in excess of $10 on the basis of the median amount within such range if as so computed such credit service charge is applied to all outstanding balance within such range. "(c) If the billing cycle is monthly, the charge may not exceed V^ percent of that part of the outstanding balance which is $500 or less and 1 percent on that part of this amount which is more than $500. If the billing cycle is not monthly, the maximum charge is that percentage which bears the relation to the applicable monthly percentage as the number of days in the billing cycle bears to thirty. For the purposes of this section, a variation of not more than four days from month to month is 'the same day of the billing cycle'. "Chapter 38.—CONSUMER PROTECTIONS "§28-3801. Scope—Limitation on agreements and practices "This (ihapter applies to actions to enforce rights arising from a consumer credit sale or a direct installment loan.
 * § 28-3702. Amount and computation of credit service charge

�