2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB4739
HB4739 repeals the requirement that holders of covered retail charge agreements send the comptroller 50 cents from each collected delinquency charge exceeding $10.
Official caption: Relating to the elimination of the requirement that a portion of certain retail charge agreement delinquency fees be remitted to the comptroller.
Official report lists House author(s): Geren. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB4739 repeals the requirement that holders of covered retail charge agreements send the comptroller 50 cents from each collected delinquency charge exceeding $10.
- The repealed subsection directed those receipts into a general-revenue account, half restricted to specified financial-services research and half to specified educational and counseling services.
- This is not a repeal of the customer's late fee.
- The affected agreements are the retail charge arrangements defined in Section 345.001, including covered retail-card arrangements.
- Tax liabilities that accrued before January 1, 2026 remain enforceable under the former law, including collection and civil or criminal enforcement.
What does it do?
HB4739 repeals the requirement that holders of covered retail charge agreements send the comptroller 50 cents from each collected delinquency charge exceeding $10. Signed May 29, 2025, it took effect January 1, 2026.
The repealed subsection directed those receipts into a general-revenue account, half restricted to specified financial-services research and half to specified educational and counseling services. Removing that transfer does not itself repeal those programs or appropriate replacement funding.
This is not a repeal of the customer’s late fee. The rest of Finance Code Section 345.157 remains, including its $15 maximum delinquency charge, requirement that the installment be more than 21 days in default, one-charge-per-installment limit and conspicuous monthly-statement notice. HB4739 does not require the customer to receive the retained 50 cents as a discount or refund. The separate subsection concerning certain creditors that moved operations out of Texas is not repealed.
The affected agreements are the retail charge arrangements defined in Section 345.001, including covered retail-card arrangements. This is not a blanket change to every bank credit card, mortgage or loan late fee.
Tax liabilities that accrued before January 1, 2026 remain enforceable under the former law, including collection and civil or criminal enforcement. Earlier liabilities are not forgiven.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill and House committee version had the same repeal and effective date as the final law. The House-passed version corrected punctuation, changed “article” references to “Act” and simplified the January 1, 2026 effective-date sentence. Senate committee and enrolled operative wording then remained unchanged.
The amendment index lists no floor amendments. The clerical version changes are not described as a floor amendment. See the history and text-version index.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Covered creditors retain the amount previously remitted and avoid that remittance duty. The state loses the associated revenue; consumers receive no guaranteed reduction in their charge.
The latest indexed fiscal note, May 9, 2025, anticipated no significant state fiscal impact because recent receipts and expected future receipts were minimal. It anticipated no local-government fiscal impact. The note supplies no specific revenue-loss or consumer-savings amount.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
