South Carolina § 37-2-404 - Assignee subject to claims and defenses.

§ 37-2-404. Assignee subject to claims and defenses.

(1) With respect to a consumer credit sale or consumer lease, an assignee of the rights of the seller or lessor is subject to all claims and defenses of the consumer against the seller or lessor arising from the sale or lease of property or services, notwithstanding that the assignee is a holder in due course of a negotiable instrument issued in violation of the provisions prohibiting certain negotiable instruments (Section 37-2-403).

(2) A claim or defense of a consumer specified in subsection (1) may be asserted against the assignee under this section only if the consumer has made a good faith attempt to obtain satisfaction from the seller or lessor with respect to the claim or defense and then only to the extent of the amount owing to the assignee with respect to the sale or lease of the property or services as to which the claim or defense arose at the time the assignee has written notice of the claim or defense. Written notice of the claim or defense may be given before the attempt specified in this subsection. For the purposes of this section, written notice is any written notification other than notice on a coupon, billing statement or other payment medium or material supplied by the assignee.

(3) For the purpose of determining the amount owing to the assignee with respect to the sale or lease:

(a) payments received by the assignee after the consolidation of two or more consumer credit sales, except pursuant to a revolving charge account, are deemed to have been applied first to the payment of the sales first made; if the sales consolidated arose from sales made on the same day, payments are deemed to have been applied first to the smallest sale; and

(b) payments received for a revolving charge account are deemed to have been applied first to the payment of finance charges in the order of their entry to the account and then to the payment of debts in the order in which the entries of the debts are made to the account.

(4) A card issuer, including a seller credit card issuer, is subject to the claims and defenses of the consumer arising from the sale or lease of property or services pursuant to the credit card in accordance with the provisions of Section 37-3-411.

(5) An agreement may not limit or waive the claims or defenses of a consumer under this section.

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 8-800.194; 1974 (58) 2879; 1976 Act No. 686 SECTION 17.