Chapter Definitions

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Commercial Instruments and Transactions
  4. Retail Installment Sales
  5. Chapter Definitions

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As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

  1. “Cash sale price” means the price for which the seller would have sold or furnished to the buyer, and the buyer would have bought or obtained from the seller, the goods or services which are the subject matter of the retail installment transaction, if such sale had been a sale for cash. The cash sale price may include any applicable taxes and charges for delivery, installation, servicing, repairs, alterations or improvements;
  2. “Goods” means all personalty, including certificates issued by a retail seller exchangeable for personalty or services, but not including other choses in action, personalty sold for commercial or industrial use, money, motor vehicles, or mobile homes. “Goods” includes goods which, at the time of the sale or subsequently, are to be so affixed to real property as to become a part thereof, whether or not severable therefrom;
  3. “Official fees” means:
    1. The fees prescribed by law for filing, recording or otherwise perfecting or releasing or satisfying any title or lien retained or taken by seller in connection with a retail installment transaction; or
    2. Premiums payable for insurance in lieu of such filing, recording or otherwise perfecting any title or lien retained or taken by seller in connection with a retail installment transaction, if such premium does not exceed the fees and charges described in subdivision (3)(A) which would otherwise be payable;
  4. “Retail buyer” or “buyer” means a person who buys goods or obtains services from a retail seller in a retail installment transaction and not principally for the purpose of resale;
  5. “Retail charge agreement” means an instrument or instruments prescribing the terms of retail installment transactions which may be made thereafter from time to time pursuant thereto, under which the buyer's total unpaid balance, whenever incurred, is payable in installments over a period of time and under the terms of which a time price differential, as defined in subdivision (10), is to be computed in relation to the buyer's unpaid balance from time to time;
  6. “Retail installment contract” or “contract” means an instrument or instruments evidencing one (1) or more retail installment transactions entered into in this state pursuant to which a buyer promises to pay in installments for goods or services. It does not include a retail charge agreement or an instrument evidencing a sale pursuant thereto, nor shall it include a rental-purchase agreement as defined in the Tennessee Rental-Purchase Agreement Act, chapter 18, part 6 of this title;
  7. “Retail installment transaction” or “transaction” means a contract to sell or furnish or the sale of or the furnishing of goods or services by a retail seller to a retail buyer pursuant to a retail installment contract or a retail charge agreement. It does not include a rental-purchase agreement as defined in the Tennessee Rental-Purchase Agreement Act, chapter 18, part 6 of this title;
  8. “Retail seller” or “seller” means a person regularly engaged in, and whose business consists to a substantial extent of, selling goods to a retail buyer;
  9. “Services” means work or labor furnished, whether or not furnished in connection with the delivery, installation, servicing, repair or improvement of goods and includes repairs, alterations or improvements upon or in connection with real property; and
  10. “Time price differential” means the amount, however denominated or expressed, which the retail buyer contracts to pay or pays for the privilege of purchasing goods or services to be paid for by the buyer in installments. It does not include the amounts, if any, charged for insurance premiums, delinquency charges, attorney's fees, court costs, or official fees.


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