what constitutes a credit agreement in Florida

[ayman-jax]

Received a dunning letter from CA and sent DV. Got back statements from the OC going back six months. My question given the Florida statue below, is: Does the OC providing statements constitute an implied agreement and therefore they do not have to show a written contract at court? If the answer is yes, how does it not contradict the following statue:

"(2) CREDIT AGREEMENTS TO BE IN WRITING.--A debtor may not maintain an action on a credit agreement unless the agreement is in writing, expresses consideration, sets forth the relevant terms and conditions, and is signed by the creditor and the debtor. "

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The 2008 Florida Statutes

Title XXXIX

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS Chapter 687

INTEREST AND USURY; LENDING PRACTICES View Entire Chapter

687.0304 Credit agreements.--

(1) DEFINITIONS.--For the purposes of this section:

(a) "Credit agreement" means an agreement to lend or forbear repayment of money, goods, or things in action, to otherwise extend credit, or to make any other financial accommodation.

( "Creditor" means a person who extends credit under a credit agreement with a debtor.

© "Debtor" means a person who obtains credit or seeks a credit agreement with a creditor or who owes money to a creditor.

(2) CREDIT AGREEMENTS TO BE IN WRITING.--A debtor may not maintain an action on a credit agreement unless the agreement is in writing, expresses consideration, sets forth the relevant terms and conditions, and is signed by the creditor and the debtor.

(3) ACTIONS NOT CONSIDERED AGREEMENTS.--

(a) The following actions do not give rise to a claim that a new credit agreement is created, unless the agreement satisfies the requirements of subsection (2):

1. The rendering of financial advice by a creditor to a debtor;

2. The consultation by a creditor with a debtor; or

3. The agreement by a creditor to take certain actions, such as entering into a new credit agreement, forbearing from exercising remedies under prior credit agreements, or extending installments due under prior credit agreements.

( A credit agreement may not be implied from the relationship, fiduciary, or otherwise, of the creditor and the debtor.

[Methuss]

To answer the first part of your question, what was provided to you is actually more than they are required to under debt validation. DV only requires that a CA obtain written confirmation of the amount owed from the original creditor and then forward that confirmation to the debtor. That's all.

The form letters on this site ask for much more as a tactic to try and get the CA to back off. There is no legal requirement for a CA to provide all that stuff, including a copy of the contract, outside of a courtroom.

Now if the CA sues you, then there is plenty of case law on what you can require them to show as proof of the debt. But until they sue you, they don't have to provide any of that.

Now as to the section of the Florida code you cite. Note that it says that "a debtor may not maintain an action..." The debtor is the consumer. The creditor is the card company. This section of law simply says a consumer cannot sue the credit card company unless the contract is in writing.

I admit it's an odd bit of law essentially saying the credit card company can sue a consumer with no written contract, but the consumer cannot sue the credit card company. Very odd. I wonder how many State politicians were paid off to pass that one!

[ayman-jax]

I totally missed the "debtor" part... I guess my mind was just wishful thinking and clinging on to what looked like a great statue.

I have a follow up question: if the original creditor sues me, are the statements sufficient or can I request actual signed sales receipts of the transactions on the statements? I read somewhere that merely not disputing the statements does not mean the creditor can assume I agree with the charges.