Puerto Rico Senate seeks to regulate store layaway programs

El Nuevo Día (Spanish-language article) ^ | October 1, 2010 | Daniel Rivera Vargas

[Ebenezer]

(English-language translation)

Some minimum parameters that protect consumers who purchase goods through the layaway system are the object of a bill in the [Puerto Rico] Senate.

Bill 1775 by Senator Lornna Soto points out among its motives that, during the last decade, easy access to credit turned layaway into a thing of the past, but the current economic recession and the new restrictions placed by financial institutions on credit cards have increased interest in those programs among consumers.

"The practice of layaway established in Puerto Rico by merchants and supported by a high number of consumers needs to be regulated so it may be an effective and reponsible means to purchase goods. The layaway contract is not one typically regulated by current legislation," the bill reads.

"At the lack of regulation, some merchants offer relatively short terms for the consumer to make partial payments and, in some cases, establish unreasonable penalties if the consumer stops paying or fails to comply with any of the terms and conditions of the program," the bill continues.

The legislation was filed on Monday and is [under consideration by] the Banking, Consumer Affairs & Corporations Committee Senator Soto herself chairs.

[Ebenezer]

ping

Gone are the simpler days when the corner colmado would allow you that informal, honor-system credit we know as el fiao.

[Wuli]

“At the lack of regulation, some merchants offer relatively short terms for the consumer to make partial payments and, in some cases, establish unreasonable penalties if the consumer stops paying or fails to comply with any of the terms and conditions of the program,” the bill continues.”

If “short terms”, “partial payments” or “unreasonable penalties” seem UNREASONABLE to the consumer, they are fully capable of NOT singing the “layaway” contract and taking their business elsewhere.

ANY “consumer” contract is a voluntary contract - no one holds a gun to a consumer and demands they sign it, or else.

[adorno]

Gone are the simpler days when the corner colmado would allow you that informal, honor-system credit we know as el fiao.

I remember that, both as a kid in Puerto Rico, and as a kid and teenager in Manhattan.

My mother depended on the grocery store owner's trust, and she would never violate that trust.

It might have been credit in a sense, but it was mostly trust on both sides that made it work; no need for regulations or government intervention.