The World Assembly,
Believing that it would be best to prohibit the specific practice of allocating payments to the balances with the lowest interest rates first, leaving higher interest rate balances to accrue, imposing costs on unsophisticated borrowers,
Considering that such action would help improve consumer rights and that further action is herein taken to expand legal recourse against violators of those rights, hereby enacts as follows:
- If a credit account has balances with different annual percentage rates (APR), every payment to that account in excess of the minimum payment needed to avoid penalties must be applied to the balances with the highest APRs first, unless the payer directs otherwise in writing for that instance.
- Section 1 requirements may not be waived by contract. Payees non-compliant with section 1 shall be liable for costs and no less than three times actual damages.
- Each lender must apply the same method for calculating interest to all of its credit accounts.