The bill started in the Senate as a bipartisan effort to regulate rent-to-own companies like Aaron’s and Rent-A-Center that sell furniture to people with bad credit or no credit.
In the House, S.73 morphed into a seven-section pro-consumer measure. The bill is now headed back to the Senate, where they can either approve the additional sections or call for a conference committee.
Here are the key sections of the bill.
• Rent-to-own dealers would be allowed to charge roughly twice the cash price of a product over the course of the rental agreement. They could run credit checks on customers before renting furniture and other home items but could not force the person to sign an arbitration agreement as part of the rental contract.
• Settlement loan companies, also known as consumer litigation funders, would be banned indefinitely. Susan Donegan, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, would be required to submit a report on the industry by Dec. 1. The House Committee on Commerce says it will take up the issue next year.
• Online dating companies like Match.com would be required to give Vermont users more warnings if they have been messaging “catfish” scammers on the dating website. Companies would need to clearly tell the scammed users that the username was banned because of the phishing scam and include a warning not to send money to other daters, among other things.
• Phony discount membership programs that offer people free cruises or vacations to the Caribbean — that lawmakers say rarely materialize — would be regulated under Vermont’s Consumer Protection Act.
• Home security companies would need to clearly say that customers who use their products might be charged additional fees, particularly if the home security system charges money to automatically dial an emergency phone number.
• Companies that keep customer information on file — through a company’s special store card — would have clear guidelines on how they have to notify Vermonters when someone has hacked personal information.
• The state would establish a Financial Literacy Commission starting July 1, that would sunset in 2018. A report from the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy gave Vermont a “D” in December for financial literacy. The commission wants to bring bankers, nonprofits, educators, and other stakeholders together to help people make better financial decisions. The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau endorsed Champlain College’s idea.
