Consumer credit

Charge it Put it on my account Add it to my student loan As these statements indicate, buying on credit is a way of life in the United States. Simply stated, credit is an arrangement to receive cash, goods, or services now and pay for them in the future (Rejda and McNamara, 1998). Consumer credit is differentiated from other types of credit (i.e., business credit) in that it is credit for personal and family needs (except a home mortgage). According the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finance, the median value of credit-card balances and installment loans for a typical family in 2004 was 13,700 (Bucks et al., 2006). Installment loans describe consumer loans that require fixed payments and a fixed term (e.g., an automobile loan). 

Using credit cards is another common example of consumer credit. Credit cards allow people to make purchases even when they may not have enough cash on hand to pay for them. Many people feel more comfortable making purchases on credit cards instead of carrying large amounts of cash. In addition, they are a convenient way to consolidate individual purchases into one single monthly payment. Many large corporations... 

Among the dominant issuers of European consumer loan ABS is Cet-elem, the consumer credit arm of Compagnie Bancaire, which in turn is... 

In accordance with the provisions of Sections 604 and 607 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Public Law 91-508, as amended by the Consumer Credit Reporting Act of 1996 (Title II, Subtitle D, Chapter 1, of Public Law 104-208), 1 hereby certify the following ... 

Trade Descriptions Act 1968, HMSO, London Consumer Credit Act 1974, HMSO, London Consumer Protection Act 1987, HMSO, London... 

Consumer Credit (Advertising) Regulations 1988, HMSO, London Consumer Credit (Quotation) Regulations 1988, HMSO, London Sale of Goods Act 1979 (superseding earlier Act of 1893), HMSO, London Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, HMSO, London Consumer Protection Act 1961, HMSO, London Consumer Safety Act 1978, HMSO, London The Ceramic Ware (Safety) Regulations 1988, HMSO, London... 

Garnishment of employee wages by employers is regulated under the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CPCA) which is administered by the Waee and Hour Division,... 

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 requires that credit and hire advertising is not misleading. A building society offered Tow start mortgages. While the normal period of a loan was 25 years, xmder the Tow start arrangement a borrower would pay 1% interest for 6 months, 2% under the society s prevailing rate for ttie next 6 months and 0.5% less than the society s rate for the next year. Thereafter the rate would be the society s current rate. At the time of the advertisement, the current rate was 8.45%. The... 

The Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980, SI 1980 No. 51, The Stationery Office, London (1980)... 

Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 223, 793 Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989 816, 830 Consumer Credit Act 1974 125,127,140 Consumer Credit (Advertisements) Regulations 2004 126 Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980 126 Consumer Protection Act 1987 41, 91,118,122,128,132,135,155,167, 200, 253... 

Hock s marginalization of the role of plastic is to be expected, given the way in which monetary objects are thought about - both popularly and in social scientific discourse as things that come to matter because of their ability to negate their materiality and act as passive mediators of value. This chapter, however, opens up for examination this simple accident of time and circumstance , and explores how the plastic in the plastic card can indeed matter to the composition of the consumer credit market assemblage, in both moments of borrowing and default. ... 

Early American consumer credit was merchant or industry specific, initially centred around individual department stores but soon being extended to a network of merchants owned by oil companies and telegram providers (see Calder 1999 Hyman 2011 Marron 2009 Steams 2011). From a relatively early stage, the card (in many cases, a term that accurately described the material) or a similar wallet-sized object (I will return to this) - emerged as essential to these forms of consumer credit. These objects, bearing the name of the merchant alongside details of the account holder, enabled the carrier to identify one s account to a centralized credit system that was available at multiple locations, or multiple merchants within an industry-specific network (Stearns 2011 6). As with many forms of early US consumer credit, these were charge cards , which meant that they enabled the extension of credit on a limited basis, with the account expected to be repaid in full at the end of the month. 

However, the success of the plastic card did not just lie in its ability to transfer information more accurately, or in the potential associations plastic had with a modern, forward-moving age. While for much of the 1950s metal fobs were the principal material for the semi-automated passage of consumer credit information, it has to be recognized that for most of the decade it was (by comparison) an unsophisticated, far cheaper and far lighter cardboard card that transmitted the bulk of American consumer credit transactions. For... 

After decades of familiarization with credit cards, it is not surprising that their material composition does not bother those for whom these devices have become a stable, unremarkable component of their movement through spaces of consumption. They are, for many, simply there , in purses, pockets and wallets, alongside a range of other objects. However, the payment card can assume an explicitly agential role for those users of transactional forms of consumer credit who find themselves unable to repay their debts. 

Calder, L. (1999) Financing the American Dream A Cultural History of Consumer Credit, Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press. 

Marron, D. (2009) Consumer Credit in the United States A Sociological Perspective from the 19th Century to the Present, New York Palgrave. 

Poon, M. (2007) Scorecards as Devices for Consumer Credit The Case of Fair, Isaac Company Incorporated , in M. Callon, Y. Millo and F. Muniesa (eds) Market Devices, Oxford Blackwell, 284—306. 

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