The production of an actual signed contract between a credit card user and the issuing bank is not required for a court to grant summary judgment to the issuing bank on a credit card debt. Brancewicz v. SMS Financial P, LLC, A21A1104, 2021 WL 3924998 (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 2, 2021).
A contract resulting in credit card debt is not effected at the time an application or agreement is signed; rather, “[t]he issuance of the card to the defendant amounted to a mere offer on plaintiff’s part, and the contract became entire when defendant retained the card and thereafter made use of it. The card itself then constituted a formal and binding contract.” Davis v. Discover Bank, 277 Ga. App. 864, 865-866, 627 S.E.2d 819 (2006); See also Hill v. American Express, 289 Ga. App. 576, 578 (2), 657 S.E.2d 547 (2008) (a credit card contract may be created “not by signature, but by use of the card”).
A creditor is entitled to summary judgment when they show: "(1) evidence that a credit card was issued to the debtor along with a document providing that if he used the card he accepted the agreement, (2) statements in the debtor’s name that were mailed to the debtor and not returned as undelivered, and (3) an account statement showing the balance due." Davis, 277 Ga. App. at 865-866.
Therefore, SMS was entitled to summary judgment where they produced evidence showing: (1) debtor, as the owner of Penn Beaver Pharmacy, applied for and obtained a credit line account on behalf of Penn Beaver Pharmacy, (2) debtor individually guaranteed the account, (3) the line of credit was used beginning in June 2007, (4) Penn Beaver Pharmacy received and paid account statements from 2007 until 2014, (5) Penn Beaver Pharmacy eventually stopped paying on the account, and (6) the account ultimately accumulated a balance in the amount of $99,119.66 in principal.