Senate Bill No. 537
(By Senators Mitchell, Redd, Rowe, McCabe, Prezioso,
Ross, Sprouse, Bowman, Kessler, Wooton, Edgell,
Caldwell, Hunter, Unger, Love and Snyder)
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[Introduced February 7, 2002; referred to the Committee
on Banking and Insurance; and then to the Committee on the
Judicairy.]
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A BILL to amend article two, chapter forty-six-a of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
one hundred forty, relating to the use of checks or account
debits for loans or cash advances made for personal, family or
household purposes.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter forty-six-a of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section one
hundred forty, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CONSUMER CREDIT PROTECTION.
§46A-2-140. No use of checks, drafts or debit authorizations as
security.
(a) No person may engage in the business of making, arranging, acting as a middleman or brokering cash advances or loans to
persons for a personal, family or household purpose pursuant to
agreements under which checks, share drafts or any authorization to
debit accounts of consumers are used as security or as any direct
or indirect part of the transaction for the advances, loans or
extensions of credit, and the payment of the checks, share drafts
or the debit of the accounts is deferred.
(b) Acting in violation of this section is unconscionable
conduct within the meaning of article five of this chapter and is
an unfair and deceptive practice under article six of this chapter.
Any agreement in violation of this section is void and
unenforceable.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prevent the taking of
checks or similar instruments to guarantee loans or cash advances.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.