The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 8 : Banking and Insurance

Chapter 204 : Powers of Financial Institutions

Subchapter 003 : LOANS

• § 14303. Bank credit cards

  (a) General authority. Any financial institution that is authorized to do a lending business in this State may issue bank credit cards.

  (b) No discrimination. No financial institution shall discriminate against any applicant for a bank credit card on the bases set forth in section 10403 of this title. Nothing in this section shall be taken to prohibit the establishment of separate credit card accounts for persons who are married.

  (c) Statements of account. Issuers of bank credit cards shall promptly furnish a statement of each cardholder’s account as of the end of each monthly period, which need not be a calendar month, in which there is any unpaid balance on the account, which statement shall include the following information, not necessarily in the order stated:

  (1) the unpaid balance of the account at the beginning of the period;

  (2) the amount of cash advances, if any, during the period;

  (3) unless furnished by the seller or tax department to the cardholder by sales slip, memorandum, or otherwise, information in the statement of account sufficient to allow the cardholder reasonably to identify the transaction or delinquent taxes paid as permitted by 32 V.S.A. § 3109(c) during the period, the cash price and the date of each purchase or tax payment;

  (4) the payments and other credits applied to the cardholder’s account during the period;

  (5) the balance at the billing date for cash advances, property, and services subject to finance charge;

  (6) the amount and rate of the finance charge imposed;

  (7) the balance at the billing date for property, labor, or services purchased or delinquent taxes paid during the billing period, if any, and the date by which it may be paid to avoid any finance charge.

  (d) Finance charges; annual fees; ATM fee.

  (1) As to that part of an account balance that shall result from cash advances, if any, the finance charge shall be applied to the average daily balance of the cash advances in the account for the billing period. An issuer of a bank credit card account may provide for an annual fee. Except for cash advances, no finance charge shall be imposed on items in the account for property, labor, and services purchased during the billing period to the extent that they are paid for not later than 25 days from the financial institution’s billing date for the item. No change in the terms of a bank credit card agreement that might require such credit cardholder to pay an annual fee shall take effect unless:

  (A) at least 60 days prior to the effective date of the change, a written notice has been mailed or delivered to the cardholder that clearly and conspicuously describes the annual fee, and contains a return stamped response addressed to the issuer with instructions to the cardholder to return the response to the issuer within 30 days, signed by the cardholder and indicating a preference, expressed in the response, for either of the following options:

  I accept the change as notified.

  I do not accept, and hereby cancel my card.

  The notice shall further state that the incurrence by the cardholder or another authorized person of any further indebtedness under the plan to which the agreement relates on or after the effective date of such change specified in the notice shall constitute acceptance of such annual fee; and

  (B) either the credit cardholder agrees in writing to such annual fee or the credit cardholder or another authorized person incurs such further indebtedness on or after the effective date of the change stated in such notice.

  (2) A credit transaction effected by the use of an automated teller machine (ATM) may be subject to a transaction fee in addition to any finance charges permitted by this section.

  (e) Payments.

  (1) 9 V.S.A. §§ 45 and 47 shall apply with respect to prepayment and application of payments to cardholder accounts. With respect to transactions in Vermont charged to a bank credit card account established by a Vermont financial institution, the defenses preserved by 9 V.S.A. § 2455 shall be available to the cardholder as against the financial institution in any action or proceeding to enforce collection of said account by a financial institution.

  (2) In the case of a bank credit card account, except for a loan or extension of credit secured by a lien against real estate, the periodic billing shall be no less than 1/48th of the balance as of the last advance.

  (f) Quarterly reports. Any financial institution that is authorized to do business in this State may issue bank credit cards only if it reports quarterly to the Commissioner pursuant to subsection 10401(b) of this title on its rates and charges on its bank credit card products. (Added 1999, No. 153 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2001; amended 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 298, eff. July 1, 2022.)