Senate Bill No. 58

Introduced By swysgood



A Bill for an Act entitled: An Act requiring issuers of credit cards or similar loan advance access devices to obtain consent from a minor's parent or legal guardian before issuing a credit card or similar loan advance access device to the minor; prohibiting the collection of any debt incurred by the minor in using the credit card or similar loan advance access device if the minor's parent or guardian did not consent to the issuance of the credit card or similar loan advance access device; amending section

41-1-304, MCA; and providing an effective date and an applicability date.



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



Section 1.  Issuing credit cards to minors -- collection of debt. (1) An issuer of a credit card or similar loan advance access device may not issue a credit card or similar loan advance access device to a minor, as defined in 41-1-101, residing in this state without first obtaining consent to the issuance from the minor's parent or legal guardian.

(2) An issuer of a credit card or similar loan advance access device that does not receive a parent's or legal guardian's consent, as required in subsection (1), before issuing the credit card or similar loan advance access device to a minor may not collect in this state from the minor or the minor's parent or guardian any debt incurred by the minor through the use of the credit card or similar loan advance access device.



Section 2.  Section 41-1-304, MCA, is amended to read:

"41-1-304.   When minors may disaffirm. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2), in In all cases other than those specified by 41-1-303, 41-1-305, and 41-1-306, the contract of a minor may, upon restoring the consideration to the party from whom it was received, be disaffirmed by the minor himself, either before his the minor reaches majority or within a reasonable time afterwards, or, in case of his the minor's death within that period, by his the minor's heirs or personal representatives.

(2) A minor subject to the provisions of [section 1] is not required to restore any consideration received from the issuer of a credit card or similar loan advance access device that has not obtained the consent of the minor's parent or legal guardian before issuing the card or similar loan advance access device to the minor."



Section 3.  Codification instruction. [Section 1] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 31, chapter 1, and the provisions of Title 31, chapter 1, apply to [section 1].



Section 4.  Applicability. [This act] applies to credit cards or similar loan advance access devices issued after [the effective date of this act].



Section 5.  Effective date. [This act] is effective July 1, 1997.

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