Colorado § 5-2-201 - Finance charge for consumer credit transactions.

§ 5-2-201. Finance charge for consumer credit transactions.

(1) With respect to a consumer loan other than a supervised loan, including a revolving loan, a lender may contract for and receive a finance charge calculated according to the actuarial method not exceeding twelve percent per year on the unpaid balance of the amount financed.

(2) With respect to a supervised loan or a consumer credit sale, except for a loan or sale pursuant to a revolving account, a supervised lender or seller may contract for and receive a finance charge, calculated according to the actuarial method, not exceeding the equivalent of the greater of either of the following:

(a) The total of:

(I) Thirty-six percent per year on that part of the unpaid balances of the amount financed that is one thousand dollars or less;

(II) Twenty-one percent per year on that part of the unpaid balances of the amount financed that is more than one thousand dollars but does not exceed three thousand dollars; and

(III) Fifteen percent per year on that part of the unpaid balances of the amount financed that is more than three thousand dollars; or

(b) Twenty-one percent per year on the unpaid balances of the amount financed.

(3) (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection (3), the finance charge for a supervised loan or consumer credit sale pursuant to a revolving credit account, calculated according to the actuarial method, may not exceed twenty-one percent per year on the unpaid balance of the amount financed.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subsection (3), if there is an unpaid balance on the date as of which the finance charge is applied, the creditor may contract for and receive a minimum finance charge not exceeding fifty cents.

(4) (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection (4), this section does not limit or restrict the manner of contracting for the finance charge, whether by way of add-on, discount, single annual percentage rate, or otherwise, so long as the rate of the finance charge does not exceed that permitted by this section.

(b) A seller or lender may contract for the payment by a consumer of a prepaid finance charge. In addition to any other disclosure required by this code, a seller or lender shall disclose to the consumer the amount of any such prepaid finance charge.

(c) If the consumer credit transaction is precomputed:

(I) The finance charge may be calculated on the assumption that all scheduled payments will be made when due;

(II) The effect of prepayment is governed by the provisions on rebate upon prepayment contained in section 5-2-211.

(5) Except as provided in subsection (8) of this section, the term of a consumer credit transaction, for the purposes of this section, commences on the date the consumer credit transaction is made. Differences in the lengths of months are disregarded and a day may be counted as one-thirtieth of a month. Subject to classifications and differentiations the creditor may reasonably establish, a part of a month in excess of fifteen days may be treated as a full month if periods of fifteen days or less are disregarded and that procedure is not consistently used to obtain a greater yield than would otherwise be permitted.

(6) Subject to classifications and differentiations the creditor may reasonably establish, the creditor may make the same finance charge on all amounts financed within a specified range. A finance charge so made does not violate this section if:

(a) When applied to the median amount within each range, it does not exceed the maximum permitted in this section; and

(b) When applied to the lowest amount within each range, it does not produce a rate of finance charge exceeding the rate calculated according to paragraph (a) of this subsection (6) by more than eight percent of such rate.

(7) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (1), (2), and (3) of this section, the creditor, in connection with a consumer credit transaction other than a deferred deposit loan as defined in section 5-3.1-102 (3) or one pursuant to a revolving credit account, may contract for and receive a minimum loan finance charge of not more than twenty-five dollars.

(8) With respect to a consumer insurance premium loan, the term of the loan commences on the earliest inception date of a policy or contract of insurance on which payment of the premium is financed by the loan.

Source: L. 2000: Entire article R&RE, p. 1196, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2001: (4)(b) amended, p. 28, § 2, effective March 9. L. 2003: (7) amended, p. 1892, § 2, effective July 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 5-2-201, as it existed prior to 2000.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For article, "State Variations of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code: The Case for Legislative Restraint", see 48 Den. L.J. 239 (1971). For article, "Colorado Usury", see 11 Colo. Law. 2557 (1982).

Defendant was entitled to charge 21% interest with respect to installment payments on the purchase of vehicles from a used-car dealership. Transaction was a consumer credit sale, not a consumer loan, so defendant who was an assignee of the dealership was legally entitled to charge 21% interest under this section. De La Rosa v. Western Funding, Inc., 24 P.3d 637 (Colo. App. 2001).