Mo. Rev. Stat. § 408.250 — MO Code / Chapter 408 / Section 408.250
408.250 Definitions.
Status: in_force

408.250. Definitions. — Unless otherwise clearly indicated by the context, the following words when used in sections 408.250 to 408.370 , for the purposes of sections 408.250 to 408.370 , shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this section:

(1) "Cash sale price" means the price stated in a retail time transaction 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 time transaction, if such sale were for cash. The cash sale price may include the cost of taxes, official fees, if any, and charges for accessories and their installation and delivery, and for the servicing, repairing or improving of goods. If a retail time transaction involves the repair, modernization, alteration or rehabilitation of real property, the cash sale price may include reasonable fees and costs actually to be paid for construction permits and similar fees, the services of an attorney and any title search and title insurance relating to any mortgage, lien or other security interest taken, granted or reserved pursuant to contract;

(2) "Credit" means the right granted by a creditor to a debtor to defer payment of a debt or to incur debt and defer its payment. It includes the right to incur debt and defer its payment pursuant to the use of a card, plate, coupon book, or other credit confirmation or identification device or number or other identifying description;

(3) The term "creditor" refers only to creditors who regularly extend, or arrange for the extension of, credit whether in connection with loans, sales of property or services, or otherwise;

(4) "Goods" means all tangible chattels personal and merchandise certificates or coupons issued by a retail seller exchangeable for tangible chattels personal of such seller, but the term does not include motor vehicles, nonprocessed farm products, livestock, money, things in action, or intangible personal property. The term includes tangible chattels personal which, at the time of the sale or subsequently, are to be so affixed to realty as to become a part thereof whether or not severable therefrom;

(5) "Holder" of a retail time contract means the retail seller of the goods or services under the contract or, if the contract is purchased or otherwise acquired, the person purchasing or otherwise acquiring the contract;

(6) "Insurance company" means any form of lawfully authorized insurer in this state;

(7) "Motor vehicle" means any new or used automobile, motor home, manufactured home as defined in section 700.010 , excluding a manufactured home with respect to which the requirements of subsections 1 to 3 of section 700.111 , as applicable, have been satisfied, motorcycle, truck, trailer, semitrailer, truck tractor, or bus, primarily designed or used to transport persons or property on a public highway, road or street, or a mobile or modular home or farm machinery or implements;

(8) "Official fees" means the fees prescribed by law for filing, recording or otherwise perfecting and releasing or satisfying any title or lien retained or taken by a seller in connection with a retail time transaction, and reasonable and bona fide third-party fees incurred for remote or electronic filing;

(9) "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, and any other group however organized;

(10) "Principal balance" means the cash sale price of the goods or services which are the subject matter of a retail time transaction plus the amount, if any, included in a retail time contract, if a separate identified charge is made therefor and stated in the contract, for insurance and other benefits and official fees, minus the amount of the buyer's down payment in money or goods;

(11) "Retail buyer" or "buyer" means a person who buys goods or obtains services to be used primarily for personal, family, or household purposes and not primarily for business, commercial, or agricultural purposes from a retail seller in a retail time transaction;

(12) "Retail charge agreement" means an agreement entered into in this state between a retail seller and a retail buyer prescribing the terms of retail time transactions to be made from time to time pursuant to such agreement, and which provides for a time charge to be computed on the buyer's total unpaid balance from time to time;

(13) "Retail seller" or "seller" means a person who regularly sells or offers to sell goods or services to a buyer primarily for the latter's personal, family, or household use and not primarily for business, commercial, or agricultural use. The term also includes a person who regularly grants credit to retail buyers for the purpose of purchasing goods or services from any person, pursuant to a retail charge agreement, but shall not apply to any person licensed or chartered and regulated to engage regularly in the business of making loans from or in this state;

(14) "Retail time contract" means an agreement evidencing one or more retail time transactions entered into in this state pursuant to which a buyer engages to pay in one or more deferred payments the time sale price of goods or services. The term includes a chattel mortgage; conditional sales contract; and a contract for the bailment or leasing of goods by which the bailee or lessee contracts to pay as compensation for their use a sum substantially equivalent to or in excess of their cash sale price and by which it is agreed that the bailee or lessee is bound to become, or, for no further or a merely nominal consideration has the option of becoming, the owner of the goods upon full compliance with the provisions of the contract;

(15) "Retail time transaction" means a contract to sell or furnish or the sale of or furnishing of goods or services by a retail seller to a retail buyer for which payment is to be made in one or more deferred payments under and pursuant to a retail time contract or a retail charge agreement;

(16) "Services" means work, labor and services of any kind furnished or agreed to be furnished by a retail seller but does not include professional services including, but not limited to, services performed by an accountant, physician, lawyer or the like, unless the furnishing of such professional services is the subject of a signed retail time transaction;

(17) "Time charge" means the amount, however denominated or expressed, in excess of the cash sale price under a retail charge agreement or the principal balance under a retail time contract which a retail buyer contracts to pay or pays for goods or services. It includes the extension to the buyer of the privilege of paying therefor in one or more deferred payments;

(18) "Time sale price" means the total of the cash sale price of the goods or services and the amount, if any, included for insurance and other benefits if a separate identified charge is made therefor, and the amounts of the official fees, and the time charge.

(L. 1961 p. 638 § 2, A.L. 1974 S.B. 427, A.L. 1975 S.B. 71, A.L. 1979 S.B. 305, A.L. 1982 H.B. 1341, et al., A.L. 1989 H.B. 346, A.L. 2010 S.B. 630, A.L. 2021 S.B. 106)