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Debt Laws | Federal
Laws | Consumer Protection
State Laws
Massachusetts Regulation of Credit Bureaus
Part 1 Administration of the Government
Title XV Regulation of Trade
Chapter 93 Regulation of Trade and Certain Enterprises
Regulation of Credit Bureaus
A. An agreement providing for the sale or lease of goods, or the rendering of services, or both, primarily for personal, family or household purposes in excess of twenty-five dollars in value and which is consummated by a party thereto at a place other than the address of the seller or lessor, which may be his main office or branch thereof, may be canceled by the buyer for other than the seller’s or lessor’s breach, whether or not such agreement contains a provision for periodic payments or an extension of credit, provided the buyer, not later than midnight of the third business day following execution of the agreement, notifies the seller or lessor that he is canceling, and such cancellation shall be effective thereupon.
B. Each such agreement shall be in writing, in the same language as that principally used in the oral sales presentation, signed by the seller or lessor, containing his address, the date of the transaction and all the terms agreed upon by the parties or required by law. The failure to include a required or an agreed term or to deliver a copy of the agreement signed by the seller or lessor shall give the buyer the right to cancel said agreement until the omitted term is provided or the copy of the agreement delivered. In either case, the time period during which the buyer may cancel under subsection A shall not commence until the failure to include terms or deliver a copy has been corrected.
Each agreement shall contain the following statement appearing on the front page thereof in immediate proximity to the space reserved for the buyer’s signature and in boldface type of a minimum size of ten points:—
You may cancel this agreement if it has been signed by a party thereto at a place other than an address of the seller, which may be his main office or branch thereof, provided you notify the seller in writing at his main office or branch by ordinary mail posted, by telegram sent or by delivery, not later than midnight of the third business day following the signing of this agreement.
See the attached notice of cancellation form for an explanation of this right.
Each such agreement shall have attached thereto a completed form in duplicate, which shall be easily detachable, and which shall contain in ten point boldface type the following in the same language as that used in the agreement:—
NOTICE OF CANCELLATION
(Enter date of transaction)
(Date)
You may cancel this transaction, without any penalty or obligation, within three business days from the above date.
If you cancel, any property traded in, any payments made by you under the agreement, and any negotiable instrument executed by you will be returned within ten business days following receipt by the seller of your cancellation notice, and any security interest arising out of the transaction will be cancelled.
If you cancel, you must make available to the seller at your residence, in substantially as good condition as when received, any goods delivered to you under this agreement; or you may if you wish, comply with the instructions of the seller regarding the return shipment of the goods at the seller’s expense and risk.
If you do make the goods available to the seller and the seller does not pick them up within twenty days of the date of your notice of cancellation, you may retain or dispose of the goods without any further obligation. If you fail to make the goods available to the seller, or if you agree to return the goods to the seller and fail to do so, then you remain liable for performance of all obligations under the contract.
To cancel this transaction, mail or deliver a signed and dated copy of this cancellation notice or any other written notice, or send a telegram to
to ____________________________________________,
(Name of seller)
at ___________________________________ not later
(Address of seller's place of business)
than midnight of _____________
(Date)
I hereby cancel this transaction.
_____________________
(Date)
____________________________
(Buyer's signature)
Forms and notices of the right to cancel prescribed by rules of the Federal Trade Commission may be substituted for the forms and notices required by this subsection.
C. Notice of cancellation under this section shall be given in writing to the seller at the place of business as set forth in the agreement by ordinary mail posted, by telegram sent or by delivery, not later than midnight of the third business day following execution of the agreement.
D. In the event of cancellation pursuant to this section the seller or lessor shall within ten business days of the receipt of any valid notice of cancellation (i) refund all payments made, including any down payment made under the agreement; (ii) return any goods or property traded in to the seller on account of or in contemplation of the agreement, in substantially as good condition as when received by the seller; (iii) cancel and return any copies of the agreement and any negotiable instrument signed by the buyer with a notation indicating that it has been cancelled; and (iv) take any action necessary or appropriate to terminate promptly any security interest created in connection with the agreement.
The seller or lessor shall be entitled to reclaim and the buyer shall return whenever possible or hold at the seller’s disposal any goods received by the buyer under the agreement. The buyer may, at his option, comply with the instructions of the seller or lessor regarding the return shipment of the goods at the seller’s or lessor’s expense and risk. If the buyer does make the goods available to the seller and the seller does not pick them up within twenty days of the date of the buyer’s notice of cancellation, the buyer may retain or dispose of the goods without any further obligation. If the buyer fails to make the goods available to the seller, or if the buyer agrees to return the goods to the seller and fails to do so, then the buyer shall remain liable for performance of all obligations under the contract.
The seller or lessor shall within ten business days of receipt of the buyer’s notice of cancellation notify the buyer whether the seller or lessor intends to repossess or to abandon any shipped or delivered goods.
E. Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.
F. A violation of this section shall constitute a violation of chapter ninety-three A.
G. An agreement subject to this section shall not contain any waiver of the buyer’s rights provided under this section.
H. The seller or lessor shall inform the buyer orally, at the time he signs the agreement, of his right to cancel and shall not misrepresent in any manner such right.
I. The seller or lessor shall not negotiate, transfer, sell, or assign any agreement or other evidence of indebtedness to a finance company or other third party prior to midnight of the fifth business day following the day the agreement was signed. No negotiation, transfer, sale or assignment of any agreement or other evidence of indebtedness shall defeat or limit the buyer’s right to cancel the agreement because of failure to include a required or an agreed term or to deliver an accurate copy of the agreement, as provided in subsection B.
J. A seller of services shall not commence such service during the three business day cancellation period, and the buyer shall not be responsible for the value of work performed during such period, in the event of cancellation.
K. This section shall not apply to a transaction in which the buyer is accorded the right to rescission by the provisions of chapter one hundred and forty D, or in which the buyer has initiated the transaction and the goods or services are needed to meet a bona fide immediate personal emergency of the buyer, and the buyer furnishes the seller with a separate dated and signed personal statement in the buyer’s handwriting describing the situation requiring immediate remedy and expressly acknowledging and waiving the right to cancel the sale within three business days.
For purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings:
“Membership camping contract” or “Membership camping agreement” means any written agreement of more than one year’s duration, executed in whole or in part within this commonwealth, which grants to a purchaser a nonexclusive right or license to use the campground of a membership camping operator or any portion thereof on a first come, first serve or reservation basis together with other purchasers. Membership camping contract or membership camping agreement also means any written agreement of more than one year’s duration, executed in whole or in part within the commonwealth, which obligates the membership camping operator to transfer or which does in fact transfer to the purchaser title to or an ownership interest in a campground or any portion thereof, and which gives the purchaser a nonexclusive right or license to use the campground of a membership camping operator or any portion thereof, on a first come, first serve or reservation basis together with other purchasers.
Any person who signs a membership camping contract or membership camping agreement shall have the unqualified right to cancel such contract. This right of cancellation cannot be waived. The right to cancel expires at midnight on the third business day following the date on which the contract was executed. To cancel the membership camping contract, the purchaser must mail notice of your intent to cancel by certified United States mail to the membership camping operator at the address shown in the membership camping contract, postage prepaid. The membership camping operator is required to return all moneys paid in connection with the execution of the membership camping contract, upon proper and timely cancellation of the contract.
For the purpose of this section, the following words shall, unless the context indicates otherwise, have the following meanings:—
“Provider of travel services”, any person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of furnishing travel, transportation or vacation services; provided, however, that this term shall not include a travel agent.
“Travel agent”, any person, firm, corporation, partnership or association, other than a common carrier or employee of a common carrier who is:
(a) an officially appointed agent of a common carrier or a member of a cruise line association and who operates exclusively as an agent for cruise lines in the sale of cruise travel products or services; or
(b) a legal agent for a provider of travel services who sells or offers for sale, travel, transportation or vacation arrangements.
Whenever any consumer elects to use a credit card to obtain travel services, and the services of a travel agent are engaged by the provider of travel services, a provider of travel services may not impose a surcharge on or reduce the commission paid to such travel agent; provided, however, that this provision shall not apply to air carriers.
Failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice under the provisions of chapter ninety-three A.
No one who is a creditor or an attorney for a creditor, or an assignee of a creditor, of a natural person present or residing in Massachusetts who has incurred a debt primarily for personal, family or household purposes shall collect or attempt to collect such debt in an unfair, deceptive or unreasonable manner.
For the purposes of this section, such collection or attempt to collect shall be deemed unfair, deceptive or unreasonable if:
(a) The creditor communicates, threatens to communicate, or implies the fact of such debt or alleged debt to a person other than the person who might reasonably be expected to be liable therefor, or to an authorized user after the fact if that status is communicated to the creditor in writing, except with the written permission of the alleged debtor. The provisions of this paragraph shall not prohibit a creditor from notifying a debtor of the fact that the creditor may report a debt or alleged debt to a credit bureau or engage an agent or an attorney for the purpose of collecting the debt or alleged debt. For the purposes of this paragraph, the use of language on envelopes indicating that the communication relates to the collection of a debt shall be deemed a communication of such debt or alleged debt.
(b) The creditor communicates directly with the alleged debtor after notification from an attorney representing such debtor that all further communications relative to the debt should be addressed to him.
(c) The creditor communicates with the alleged debtor in such a manner as to harass or embarrass the alleged debtor, including, but not limited to communication at an unreasonable hour, with unreasonable frequency, by threats of violence, by use of offensive language, or by threats of any action which the creditor in the usual course of business does not in fact take.
(d) The creditor communicates with alleged debtors through the use of forms or instruments that simulate the form and appearance of judicial process.
Failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice under the provisions of chapter ninety-three A.
Every retail trade reporting agency which discloses to any third person information concerning a business engaged in retail trade shall, upon request of such business, disclose to it the nature, contents and substance of such information contained in its files at the time of the request. Whoever fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, and shall be deemed to have committed an unfair or deceptive act or practice prohibited by chapter ninety-three A.
For the purposes of this section retail trade reporting agency shall mean any person, firm, association or corporation which for monetary fees or dues, regularly engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or evaluating trade or other information on a business engaged in retail trade for the purpose of furnishing reports on such business to third parties.
As used in this section and sections fifty-one through sixty-seven, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings:
“Consumer”, an individual.
“Consumer report”, any written, oral or other communication of any information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing or credit capacity which is used or expected to be used or collected in whole or in part for the purpose of serving as a factor in establishing the consumer’s eligibility for (1) credit or insurance to be used primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, or (2) employment purposes, or (3) other purposes authorized under section fifty-one. The term does not include any report containing information solely as to transactions or experiences between the consumer and the person making the report, any authorization or approval of a specific extension of credit directly or indirectly by the issuer of a credit card or similar device, or any report in which a person who has been requested by a third party to make a specific extension of credit directly or indirectly to a consumer conveys his decision with respect to such request, if the third party advises the consumer of the name and address of the person to whom the request was made and such person makes the disclosures to the consumer required under section sixty-two.
“Consumer reporting agency”, means any person which, for monetary fees, dues, or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third parties.
“Employment purposes”, when used in connection with a consumer report means a report used for the purpose of evaluating a consumer for employment, promotion, reassignment or retention as an employee.
“File”, when used in connection with information on any consumer, means all of the information on that consumer recorded and retained by a consumer reporting agency regardless of how the information is stored.
“Firm offer of credit”, any offer of credit to a consumer that will be honored if, based on information in a consumer report on the consumer and other information relative to the creditworthiness of the consumer, the consumer is determined to meet the criteria used to select the consumer for said offer.
“Investigative consumer report”, a consumer report or portion thereof in which information on a consumer’s character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living is obtained through personal interviews with neighbors, friends, or associates of the consumer reported on or with others with whom he is acquainted or who may have knowledge concerning any such items of information. However, such information shall not include specific factual information on a consumer’s credit record obtained directly from a creditor of the consumer or from a consumer reporting agency when such information was obtained directly from a creditor of the consumer or from the consumer.
“Medical information”, information or records obtained after the consent of the individual to whom it relates, from licensed physicians or medical practitioners, hospitals, clinics, or other medical or medically related facilities.
“Person”, means any individual, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, cooperative, association, government or governmental subdivision or agency, or other entity.
“Prescreening”, a process whereby a consumer reporting agency compiles or edits for a client a list of consumers who meet specific criteria and provides such list to the client or third party on behalf of the client for the purpose of making a firm offer of credit.
“User”, any person seeking or obtaining a consumer report for purposes authorized in section fifty-one.
(a) A consumer reporting agency may furnish a consumer report under the following circumstances and no other:
(1) in response to the order of a court having jurisdiction to issue such an order; or
(2) in accordance with the written instructions of the consumer to whom it relates; or
(3) to a person which it reasonably believes:
(i) intends to use the information in connection with a credit transaction involving the consumer on whom the information is to be furnished and involving the extension of credit to, or review or collection of an account of, the consumer; or
(ii) intends to use the information for employment purposes; or
(iii) intends to use the information in connection with the underwriting of insurance involving the consumer; or
(iv) intends to use the information in connection with a determination of the consumer’s eligibility, or continuing eligibility, for a license or other benefit granted by a governmental instrumentality required by law to consider an applicant’s financial responsibility or status; or
(v) intends to use the information in connection with a transaction either entered into or being negotiated with a consumer, if by the terms of the transaction either party transfers an interest in real or personal property, pays money or renders services, or becomes obligated so to transfer property, pay money or render services; provided, however, that the consumer who is the subject of the report, except in the case of the rental or lease of residential property, has provided permission in writing or in the same manner in which the transaction was negotiated or entered into, that a consumer report may be requested in connection with the transaction; or
(vi) intends to use the information for the enforcement of child support orders under chapter one hundred and nineteen A; or
(b) A consumer reporting agency may furnish information for the purposes of a credit transaction under subclause (i) of clause (3) of paragraph (a) where the credit transaction is not initiated by the consumer, only if:
(1) the consumer authorizes the consumer reporting agency to furnish the consumer credit report to the person; or
(2) the proposed transaction involves a firm offer of credit to the consumer, the consumer reporting agency has complied with the provisions of section fifty-one A, and the consumer has not elected to have his name excluded from any list of names provided by the consumer reporting agency for purposes of reporting in connection with the potential issuance of firm offers of credit and the agency only provides the name and address of the consumer and information pertaining to a consumer which is not identified or identifiable with particular accounts or transactions of the consumer.
(a) A consumer may elect to have his name and address excluded from any list provided by a consumer reporting agency pursuant to clause (2) of paragraph (b) of section fifty-one by notifying the consumer reporting agency, by telephone or in writing, through the notification system maintained by the consumer reporting agency pursuant to paragraph (c), that the consumer does not consent to any use of consumer reports relating to the consumer in connection with any transaction that is not initiated by the consumer.
(b) An election by a consumer under this section shall be effective with respect to a consumer reporting agency, and any affiliate of the consumer reporting agency, on the date on which the consumer notifies the consumer reporting agency.
(c) Each consumer reporting agency that provides prescreening lists under clause (2) of paragraph (b) of section fifty-one in connection with a credit transaction not initiated by the consumer shall establish and maintain a notification system, including a toll-free telephone number, which permits any consumer, with appropriate identification and for whom the consumer reporting agency has a file, to notify the consumer reporting agency of the consumer’s election to have the consumer’s name removed from any list of names and addresses provided by the consumer reporting agency. Each consumer reporting agency which compiles and maintains files on consumers on a nationwide basis shall establish and maintain a notification system jointly with its affiliated consumer reporting agencies.
(d) Any person who uses a consumer report in connection with any credit transaction not initiated by the consumer and which consists of a firm offer of credit shall provide with any solicitation made to the consumer a clear and conspicuous statement that the consumer has a right to prohibit the use of information contained in the consumer’s file with any consumer reporting agency in connection with any credit transaction that is not initiated by the consumer. Said statement shall inform the consumer that he may exercise this right by notifying the consumer reporting agency by employing the notification system or joint notification system established under paragraph (c). A consumer may cancel or review his decision to have his name removed from prescreening lists provided under clause (2) of paragraph (b) of section fifty-one by notifying the consumer reporting agency through the notification system established under said paragraph (c). Nothing in this paragraph shall preclude a person who uses a consumer report in connection with credit transactions not initiated by the consumer from establishing a notification system, pursuant to paragraph (c) and provide such toll-free telephone number on any solicitation pursuant to this paragraph, which allows the person to notify each applicable consumer reporting agency on the consumer’s behalf after receiving notice from the consumer of his election to have his name removed from such prescreening list or of the consumer’s decision to review or cancel such a removal.
MA Massachusetts Official State Code
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