[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3477 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3477

To amend the Truth in Lending Act to require credit card statements to 
    include the date by which a consumer's payment by mail must be 
 postmarked in order to avoid the late fee and to prohibit a late fee 
for a consumer's payment by mail which is postmarked by such date, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 18, 1999

Ms. Hooley of Oregon introduced the following bill; which was referred 
           to the Committee on Banking and Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to require credit card statements to 
    include the date by which a consumer's payment by mail must be 
 postmarked in order to avoid the late fee and to prohibit a late fee 
for a consumer's payment by mail which is postmarked by such date, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Credit Card Customer Protection Act 
of 1999''.

SEC. 2. POSTMARK DATE REQUIRED TO BE DISCLOSED.

    Section 127 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1637) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(h) Requirements Relating to Late Payments.--
            ``(1) Postmark date required to be disclosed.--In the case 
        of a credit card account under an open-end consumer credit plan 
        under which a late fee may be imposed for the failure of a 
        customer to make any payment by the due date for such payment--
                    ``(A) the periodic statement required under 
                subsection (b) with respect to such account shall 
                include (next to the date disclosed pursuant to 
                paragraph (9) of such subsection) the date by which the 
                next periodic payment must be postmarked, if paid by 
                mail, in order to avoid the imposition of a late fee 
                with respect to such payment; and
                    ``(B) no late fee may be imposed in connection with 
                a payment made by mail which was postmarked on or 
                before such date.
            ``(2) Disclosure of increase in interest rates for late 
        payments.--If a late periodic payment under a credit card 
        account described in paragraph (1) may result in an increase in 
        the annual percentage rate for any outstanding balance on such 
        account, the statement required under subsection (b) with 
        respect to such account shall include a notice of such fact in 
        distinctive typeface in a prominent location near any notice of 
        the due date for the next such payment.''.

SEC. 3. EXPLANATION OF METHOD FOR DETERMINING DUE DATE REQUIRED.

    Section 127(a) of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1637(a)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(9) The method for determining the due date for any 
        periodic payment on an outstanding balance.''.
                                 <all>