Council Rulings

Practice Direction of the Council on the Use of Credit Cards

The Council is pleased to inform members that, with effect from 1 October 2001, it has approved the use of credit cards for the payment of solicitors' bills of costs. The Council reviewed the retail agreements of MasterCard and Visa to ensure that the terms of their agreements do not breach any of the provisions of the Legal Profession Act (Cap 161) and the rules made thereunder.

The Council reviewed the retail agreements of Visa and MasterCard to address the problems of client confidentiality and the payment of service charges. The terms agreed with MasterCard and Visa are described below.

Members are reminded to review any agreement offered by other credit card companies to ensure their compliance with the rules of the profession.

You may circulate this Practice Direction to your bank when communicating with them on the terms of the agreement you wish to enter with them.

Visa International

'The solicitor agrees that the Bank may impose a service charge of xx% (or such other rates as may from time to time be agreed in writing) on the face value of all sales vouchers presented for payment.'

'The solicitor shall not without the written consent of the relevant cardholder, sell, purchase, provide, disclose or exchange credit card information, including, without limitation, details of cardholders, or information regarding them or their transactions, or regarding the credit card scheme, howsoever obtained and whatsoever the form the same shall take, to any third party (other than to the solicitor's agents for the sole purpose of assisting the solicitor in his business, or the Issuing Bank, Acquiring Bank or Visa International for the settlement of disputes that may arise) unless such disclosure is required by Law.'

MasterCard International

  1. 'The solicitor will within xx bank business days present all sales vouchers to the acquiring bank which will arrange for the solicitor's bank to be credited with the full amount for such sales vouchers.'
  2. The acquiring bank will debit the solicitor with the under-mentioned items:
  1. The agreed service charge on the amount of all payments made in respect of sales vouchers presented for payment, in the preceding xx days/weeks.
  2. At the discretion of the acquiring bank, interest at the rate of xx% per annum from the due date until the date of payment on any sum due by the solicitor.
  1. Any billing information cannot be released without the consent of the cardholder.

Yasho Dhoraisingam
Law Society of Singapore