Section 56-12-13 - Pawn service charge.

NM Stat § 56-12-13 (2019) (N/A)

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A. For the first thirty-day period of the pawn transaction, a pawnbroker may charge seven dollars fifty cents ($7.50) or ten percent of the amount loaned, whichever is greater, provided that such charge shall not be made on the refinancing of an existing loan or credit transaction. A loan or extension of credit shall be considered to be refinancing of an existing loan if any part of the proceeds of the subsequent loan is applied toward the payment of a prior loan with the same pawnbroker.

B. For the remaining period of the pawn transaction, including any refinancing, no pawnbroker shall charge directly, indirectly or by any subterfuge a pawn service charge in connection with any pawn transaction at a rate in excess of four percent per month on the unpaid principal balance of the loan or extension of credit.

C. The foregoing pawn service charges are limiting maximums and nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit a pawnbroker from contracting for or receiving a lesser rate than here established.

History: Laws 1985, ch. 228, § 13.

Storage fee. — A storage fee of $30, charged by pawnbroker at the beginning of each pawn transaction, was, in fact, a "pawn service charge" and was illegal because it exceeded the maximum set forth in this section. Yazzie v. Ray Vicker's Special Cars, Inc., 12 F. Supp. 2d 1230 (D.N.M. 1998).

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