Comment for 1026.8 - Identifying Transactions on Periodic Statements

8(a) Sale Credit

1. Sale credit. The term “sale credit” refers to a purchase in which the consumer uses a credit card or otherwise directly accesses an open-end line of credit (see comment 8(b)-1 if access is by means of a check) to obtain goods or services from a merchant, whether or not the merchant is the card issuer or creditor. “Sale credit” includes:

i. The purchase of funds-transfer services (such as a wire transfer) from an intermediary.

ii. The purchase of services from the card issuer or creditor. For the purchase of services that are costs imposed as part of the plan under § 1026.6(b)(3), card issuers and creditors comply with the requirements for identifying transactions under this section by disclosing the fees in accordance with the requirements of § 1026.7(b)(6). For the purchases of services that are not costs imposed as part of the plan, card issuers and creditors may, at their option, identify transactions under this section or in accordance with the requirements of § 1026.7(b)(6).

2. Amount - transactions not billed in full. If sale transactions are not billed in full on any single statement, but are billed periodically in precomputed installments, the first periodic statement reflecting the transaction must show either the full amount of the transaction together with the date the transaction actually took place; or the amount of the first installment that was debited to the account together with the date of the transaction or the date on which the first installment was debited to the account. In any event, subsequent periodic statements should reflect each installment due, together with either any other identifying information required by § 1026.8(a) (such as the seller's name and address in a three-party situation) or other appropriate identifying information relating the transaction to the first billing. The debiting date for the particular installment, or the date the transaction took place, may be used as the date of the transaction on these subsequent statements.

3. Date - when a transaction takes place.

i. If the consumer conducts the transaction in person, the date of the transaction is the calendar date on which the consumer made the purchase or order, or secured the advance.

ii. For transactions billed to the account on an ongoing basis (other than installments to pay a precomputed amount), the date of the transaction is the date on which the amount is debited to the account. This might include, for example, monthly insurance premiums.

iii. For mail, Internet, or telephone orders, a creditor may disclose as the transaction date either the invoice date, the debiting date, or the date the order was placed by telephone or via the Internet.

iv. In a foreign transaction, the debiting date may be considered the transaction date.

4. Date - sufficiency of description.

i. If the creditor discloses only the date of the transaction, the creditor need not identify it as the “transaction date.” If the creditor discloses more than one date (for example, the transaction date and the posting date), the creditor must identify each.

ii. The month and day sufficiently identify the transaction date, unless the posting of the transaction is delayed so long that the year is needed for a clear disclosure to the consumer.

5. Same or related persons.

i. For purposes of identifying transactions, the term same or related persons refers to, for example:

A. Franchised or licensed sellers of a creditor's product or service.

B. Sellers who assign or sell open-end sales accounts to a creditor or arrange for such credit under a plan that allows the consumer to use the credit only in transactions with that seller.

ii. A seller is not related to the creditor merely because the seller and the creditor have an agreement authorizing the seller to honor the creditor's credit card.

6. Brief identification - sufficiency of description. The “brief identification” provision in § 1026.8(a)(1)(i) requires a designation that will enable the consumer to reconcile the periodic statement with the consumer's own records. In determining the sufficiency of the description, the following rules apply:

i. While item-by-item descriptions are not necessary, reasonable precision is required. For example, “merchandise,” “miscellaneous,” “second-hand goods,” or “promotional items” would not suffice.

ii. A reference to a department in a sales establishment that accurately conveys the identification of the types of property or services available in the department is sufficient - for example, “jewelry,” or “sporting goods.”

iii. A number or symbol that is related to an identification list printed elsewhere on the statement that reasonably identifies the transaction with the creditor is sufficient.

7. Seller's name - sufficiency of description. The requirement contemplates that the seller's name will appear on the periodic statement in essentially the same form as it appears on transaction documents provided to the consumer at the time of the sale. The seller's name may also be disclosed as, for example:

i. A more complete spelling of the name that was alphabetically abbreviated on the receipt or other credit document.

ii. An alphabetical abbreviation of the name on the periodic statement even if the name appears in a more complete spelling on the receipt or other credit document. Terms that merely indicate the form of a business entity, such as “Inc.,” “Co.,” or “Ltd.,” may always be omitted.

8. Location of transaction.

i. If the seller has multiple stores or branches within a city, the creditor need not identify the specific branch at which the sale occurred.

ii. When no meaningful address is available because the consumer did not make the purchase at any fixed location of the seller, the creditor may omit the address, or may provide some other identifying designation, such as “aboard plane,” “ABC Airways Flight,” “customer's home,” “telephone order,” “internet order” or “mail order.”

8(b) Nonsale credit.

1. Nonsale credit. The term “nonsale credit” refers to any form of loan credit including, for example:

i. A cash advance.

ii. An advance on a credit plan that is accessed by overdrafts on a checking account.

iii. The use of a “supplemental credit device” in the form of a check or draft or the use of the overdraft credit plan accessed by a debit card, even if such use is in connection with a purchase of goods or services.

iv. Miscellaneous debits to remedy mispostings, returned checks, and similar entries.

2. Amount - overdraft credit plans. If credit is extended under an overdraft credit plan tied to a checking account or by means of a debit card tied to an overdraft credit plan:

i. The amount to be disclosed is that of the credit extension, not the face amount of the check or the total amount of the debit/credit transaction.

ii. The creditor may disclose the amount of the credit extensions on a cumulative daily basis, rather than the amount attributable to each check or each use of the debit card that accesses the credit plan.

3. Date of transaction. See comment 8(a)-4.

4. Nonsale transaction - sufficiency of identification. The creditor sufficiently identifies a nonsale transaction by describing the type of advance it represents, such as cash advance, loan, overdraft loan, or any readily understandable trade name for the credit program.