SC Consumer Protection Code: Section 37-5-108

Codified in Title 37, the South Carolina Consumer Protection Code offers a comprehensive state regulatory framework covering most consumer credit transactions as well as elder care retirement communities, high cost and consumer home loans, and subleasing and assumption of loans for motor vehicles, among other things.

One of the most important protections is contained in section 37-5-108, which prohibits "unconscionable" conduct in the collection of consumer credit transactions. Unlike the federal FDCPA which only applies to debt collectors, this statute also applies to the creditors who harass and abuse consumers in attempts to collect their debts. The statute lays out specifically prohibited acts similar to those provided in the FDCPA:

• calling or making personal visits at unusual times or locations which the creditor should recognize as inconvenient to the consumer (with the same FDCPA-provided safe zones between 8 AM and 9 PM, unless the creditor has information to the contrary);
• communicating with any consumer known to the creditor to be represented by an attorney (unless the attorney consents or fails to respond within 10 days to the creditor/collector);
• contacting a consumer at his or her workplace when the creditor knows the consumer can't take such calls at work;
• using obscene, abusive, or profane language;
• causing a telephone to ring repeatedly or using the telephone in any manner with intent to annoy, abuse or harass the consumer or any other person at that number; and more.

The statute is broader in its scope of prohibited activities than the FDCPA, and in its application to creditors as well as debt collectors. For that reason, this section is an important weapon in the consumer advocate's arsenal.

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