§ 1748.11. — 1748.11. (Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 159, Sec. 33.)

(a)
Any application form or preapproved written solicitation for an open-end credit card account to be used for personal, family, or household purposes that is mailed on or after October 1, 1987, to a consumer residing in this state by or on behalf of a creditor, whether or not the creditor is located in this state, other than an application form or solicitation included in a magazine, newspaper, or other publication distributed by someone other than the creditor, shall contain or be accompanied by either of the following
disclosures:
(1)
A disclosure of each of the following, if applicable:
(A)
Any periodic rate or rates that may be applied to the account, expressed as an annual percentage rate or rates. If the account is subject to a variable rate, the creditor may instead either disclose the rate as of a specific date and indicate that the rate may vary, or identify the index and any amount or percentage added to, or subtracted from, that index and used to determine the rate. For purposes of this section, that amount or percentage shall be referred to as the “spread.”
(B)
Any membership or participation fee that may be imposed for availability of a credit card account, expressed as an annualized amount.
(C)
Any per transaction fee that may be imposed on purchases,
expressed as an amount or as a percentage of the transaction, as applicable.
(D)
If the creditor provides a period during which the consumer may repay the full balance reflected on a billing statement that is attributable to purchases of goods or services from the creditor or from merchants participating in the credit card plan, without the imposition of additional finance charges, the creditor shall either disclose the number of days of that period, calculated from the closing date of the prior billing cycle to the date designated in the billing statement sent to the consumer as the date by which that payment must be received to avoid additional finance charges, or describe the manner in which the period is calculated. For purposes of this section, the period shall be referred to as the “free period” or “free-ride period.” If the creditor does not provide this period for purchases, the disclosure shall so indicate.
(2)
A disclosure that satisfies the initial disclosure statement requirements of Regulation Z.
(b)
A creditor need not present the disclosures required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) in chart form or use any specific terminology, except as expressly provided in this section. The following chart shall not be construed in any way as a standard by which to determine whether a creditor who elects not to use such a chart has provided the required disclosures in a manner that satisfies paragraph (1) of subdivision (a). However, disclosures shall be conclusively presumed to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) if a chart with captions substantially as follows is completed with the applicable terms offered by the creditor, or if the creditor presents the applicable terms in tabular, list, or narrative format using terminology substantially similar to the captions
included in the following chart:
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROVIDED PURSUANT TO THE
AREIAS CREDIT CARD FULL DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1986:
INTEREST RATES, FEES, AND FREE-RIDE PERIOD FOR PURCHASES
UNDER THIS CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT
ANNUAL
PER-
CENTAGE
RATE (1)
VARIABLE
RATE
INDEX AND
SPREAD (2)
ANNUAL-
IZED
MEMBER-
SHIP
OR PARTICI-
PATION
FEE
TRANS-
ACTION
FEE
FREE–RIDE
PERIOD (3)
(1)
For fixed interest rates. If variable rate, creditor may elect to disclose a rate as of a specified date and indicate that the rate may vary.
(2)
For variable interest rates. If fixed rate, creditor may eliminate the column, leave the column blank, or indicate “No” or “None” or “Does not apply.”
(3)
For example, “30 days” or “Yes, if full payment is received by next billing date” or “Yes, if full new balance is paid by due date.”
(c)
For purposes of this section, “Regulation Z” has the meaning attributed to it under Section 1802.18, and all of the terms used in this section have the same meaning as attributed to them
in federal Regulation Z (12 C.F.R. 226.1 et seq.). For the purposes of this section, “open-end credit card account” does not include an account accessed by a device described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 1747.02.
(d)
Nothing in this section shall be deemed or construed to prohibit a creditor from disclosing additional terms, conditions, or information, whether or not relating to the disclosures required under this section, in conjunction with the disclosures required by this section.
(e)
If a creditor is required under federal law to make any disclosure of the terms applicable to a credit card account in connection with application forms or solicitations, the creditor shall be deemed to have complied with the requirements of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) with respect to those application forms or solicitations if the creditor complies with the federal
disclosure requirement. For example, in lieu of complying with the requirements of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), a creditor has the option of disclosing the specific terms required to be disclosed in an advertisement under Regulation Z, if the application forms or solicitations constitute advertisements in which specific terms must be disclosed under Regulation Z.
(f)
If for any reason the requirements of this section do not apply equally to creditors located in this state and creditors not located in this state, then the requirements applicable to creditors located in this state shall automatically be reduced to the extent necessary to establish equal requirements for both categories of creditors, until it is otherwise determined by a court of law in a proceeding to which the creditor located in this state is a party.
(g)
All application forms for an open-end credit card
account distributed in this state on or after October 1, 1987, other than by mail, shall contain a statement in substantially the following form:
“If you wish to receive disclosure of the terms of this credit card, pursuant to the Areias Credit Card Full Disclosure Act of 1986, check here and return to the address on this application.”
A box shall be printed in or next to this statement for placement of such a checkmark.
However, this subdivision does not apply if the application contains the disclosures provided for in this title.
(h)
This title does not apply to any application form or written advertisement or an open-end credit card account where the credit to be extended will be secured by a lien on real or personal property or both real and personal property.
(i)
This title does not apply to any person who is subject to Article 10.5 (commencing with Section 1810.20) of Chapter 1 of Title 2.

Legislative History

Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 159, Sec. 33. Effective January 1, 2002.