ColorTyme is an American

rent-to-own Rent-to-own, also known as rental purchase or rent-to-buy, is a type of legally documented transaction under which tangible property, such as furniture, consumer electronics, motor vehicles, home appliances, real property, and engagement rings, ...

business, currently a wholly owned subsidiary of

Rent-A-Center Rent-A-Center (commonly referred to as RAC) is an American public furniture and electronics rent-to-own company based in Plano, Texas. The company was incorporated in 1986 and as of 2014 operates approximately 2,972 company-owned stores in the Un ...

Litigation

In 1994, the

Minnesota Supreme Court The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The court hears cases in the Supreme Court chamber in the Minnesota State Capitol or in the nearby Minnesota Judicial Center. History The court was first asse ...

ruled in ''Miller v. ColorTyme'' that the lease agreements offered by ColorTyme were covered under the state's Consumer Credit Sales Act, and that the lease agreements were therefore not leases but sales on credit. The court further held that the company was charging usurious rates of interest to its customers. A similar lawsuit, filed by the office of Wisconsin Attorney General James E. Doyle in 1993, resulted in the company being fined $25,000 and required to disclose interest rates and other credit terms to consumers. ColorTyme later settled a class action lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee by agreeing to pay $2.9 million, including $675,000 in interest-free loans to low-income individuals and families.

References

{{retail-company-stub Companies based in Texas Furniture retailers of the United States Companies based in Plano, Texas