South Carolina Car Loan Laws

How South Carolina limits finance charges

A car bought on credit from a dealer is a consumer credit sale under Title 37 of the South Carolina Code. Section 37-2-201 limits the credit service charge to the greater of 18% a year on the unpaid balance or any rate the creditor has filed and posted under section 37-2-305.

• Rate schedule filing. A creditor that wants to charge more than 18% must file a maximum rate schedule with the Department of Consumer Affairs and post it at each place of business.
• Yearly renewal. The filing is due each year before January 31. A creditor that misses it is held to 18% on new credit until it files again.
• No fixed upper number. The code sets no hard ceiling above the filed rate, so the posted schedule is the limit to ask about.

Because the filed rate can be high, read the APR on your retail installment contract and compare it with a credit union or bank offer. The car payment calculator shows what each rate costs in dollars.

Closing fees and the infrastructure fee

• Closing fee. This is South Carolina's name for the doc fee: a charge to recover the dealer's costs of transferring and delivering the car (§37-2-307). The dealer must file its maximum closing fee with the Department of Consumer Affairs before charging it.
• $225 threshold. A filed fee of $225 or less per vehicle is considered approved. A higher fee may be reviewed by the department for reasonableness.
• Disclosure. The fee must appear on the sale or lease contract, be posted in a conspicuous spot at the dealership, and be disclosed in ads for a specific vehicle.
• Infrastructure maintenance fee. When you first title or register a vehicle, you pay 5% of the sales price, capped at $500 (§56-3-627). Vehicles subject to the fee are exempt from state and local sales and use taxes.
• Moving in. A vehicle already titled or registered in another state pays a flat $250 fee instead, with exceptions for active-duty service members and their families.

Your right to cure and repossession in South Carolina

South Carolina's right to cure applies to consumer credit payable in installments, which covers a typical dealer car contract. Sections 37-5-110 to 37-5-112 set the steps.

1. 1 Notice after 10 days. Once you have been in default for 10 days for a missed payment, the creditor may deliver or mail a notice of your right to cure.
2. 2 20 days to catch up. The creditor may not accelerate the debt or repossess until 20 days after the notice is given. A repossession that breaks this rule is void, and the creditor is liable for conversion.
3. 3 One notice per contract. After a creditor has given one cure notice on an obligation, later defaults on it carry no new right to cure.
4. 4 Peaceful repossession only. Without a court order, the creditor may take the car only without entering a dwelling and without force or other breach of the peace (§37-5-112).
5. 5 Deficiency limits. You owe a deficiency only if the creditor sold the car in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner. If the cash price of the car was $1,500 or less, the seller cannot collect one at all (§37-5-103).

Our guides to falling behind and repossession explain how to use the cure period and what happens after the car is taken.

Where to check a lender and complain

The Department of Consumer Affairs receives dealer closing fee filings and maximum rate schedules and takes consumer complaints. The Consumer Finance Division of the State Board of Financial Institutions oversees licensed consumer lenders. Banks and credit unions answer to their own regulators.

Questions people ask