Plastic Loophole

A man loses his wallet, with all his credit cards. Before he can notify each of the issuing companies, someone fraudulently charges thousands of dollars in his name. Is he liable for the entire amount? A percentage of it? A certain limit on each card?

Not a cent, says the Federal Trade Commission. According to the FTC, none of the major credit card companies has presented evidence that it is complying with the provisions of a 1970 amendment to the Truth in Lending Act. Unless the companies comply, the act prohibits them from pinching holders for as much as a penny on lost or stolen cards. Though many cards carry stern warnings that holders must pay for charges run up before the issuing company is notified of loss or theft, the warnings are legally meaningless.

The amendment would limit holders liability to $50 for each card-but only after the holder is properly notified of that liability by the issuing company and provided with a postage-paid return envelope to use in case of Only two issuers, American Express and Carte Blanche, have tried to notify their customers of the act, but FTC lawyer say the agency has not been informed that the companies have done so. Bank-Americard plans to begin notifying its cardholders next January. The others, including Master Charge, Diners Club and Uni-Card, seem to have no immediate intention of complying. Compliance is not mandatory, but if a card-issuing company does not go along its customers can lose their cards without fear of having to pay up.

Why do the purveyors of plastic credit prefer to absorb the cost of stolen cards -which last year amounted to well over $50 million-rather than claim the $50 per victim to which the law would entitle them? Credit card executives are vague on that question. But staffers at the FTC's Division of Consumer Credit and Special Programs say that most companies have a lot to gain by keeping their customers uninformed. If a cardholder knows that his liability is limited to $50, for example, he may not be so prompt in letting the company know when he finds that his card is missing.

Neither the FTC nor the companies are educating consumers about the act's no-liability loophole. Still, word may be out. Credit card notification services, organizations that feed all of a holder's card numbers into a computer and notify the proper companies as soon as a loss is reported, are dying out. Just a year ago, there were at least 40; today the FTC knows of only four. . . . When Japanese-born Mike Yamano of Los Angeles applied for a Diners Club card in 1958, he was rejected as a poor credit risk. Today, Yamano is taking his revenge on the credit card industry. Outraged by his Diners Club rejection and resentful that cash customers must pay the same prices as those who buy on credit, he originated the nation's first "anti-credit card." In 1968 he founded United International Club, Inc., whose card entitles some 31,500 holders to discounts averaging 10% at 700 stores and restaurants. The only stipulation is that the holders pay cash. Participating merchants, most of whom are located in the Los Angeles area, are happy to get immediate payment and avoid the 2% to 7% service charge that regular credit card companies demand on each transaction.

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