Texas Penal Code Section 32.31 covers a range of conduct involving payment cards: using a card with intent to fraudulently obtain a benefit, using a card the person knows was not issued to them and not used with the cardholder's effective consent, possessing a card with intent to use it without effective consent, and receiving a benefit or possessing a card knowing it was stolen.¹ The base offense is a state jail felony, punishable by 180 days to two years in a state jail facility and a fine of up to $10,000, regardless of the dollar amount on any one transaction.²

The grade does not turn on value the way theft does. That is the surprise for many people, because a single small transaction is charged at the same felony grade as a large one. The case instead turns on two questions: how the card was used, which the State must tie to the person transaction by transaction, and how the card was found, which is governed by the law of search and seizure.

The statute reaches several kinds of conduct and sets a higher grade where the cardholder is elderly. It is also frequently charged together with related fraud offenses, which makes the indictment language a focus.

The state jail felony base offense

The core conduct, fraudulent use, use without effective consent, possession with intent, or receiving a benefit from a stolen card, is a state jail felony, the base charge here, regardless of the amount.¹ Because the grade is fixed by the conduct rather than the value, the defense focuses on attribution and on how the card was obtained.

When the cardholder is elderly

Section 32.31 elevates the offense to a third-degree felony where the cardholder was a person sixty-five years of age or older.¹ That elevation raises the punishment range to two to ten years,³ so whether the elderly-victim element is alleged and provable is a central issue wherever it appears.

When it is charged with companion offenses

Card abuse is frequently filed together with fraudulent use or possession of identifying information and with theft or forgery. Where companion charges are present, the indictment language and the overlap between counts are examined closely, because how the counts relate to one another shapes both the exposure and the negotiation.

Most people charged with credit or debit card abuse have never been in a criminal courtroom before, and many are stunned to learn the offense is a felony at all. The cases often arise from a found or borrowed card, a disputed transaction, or a card recovered during a traffic stop or an arrest for something else. The people charged are frequently young and frequently charged on an inference connecting them to a transaction or to a card found nearby.

The collateral exposure is the felony exposure. A felony conviction reaches the right to vote and to possess a firearm, professional licenses, and the background checks that employers and landlords run, and a fraud-related conviction reads as an offense of dishonesty. For a noncitizen, a fraud-related conviction can carry immigration consequences, including exposure to removal. Because the offense is a felony regardless of amount, the Section 12.44 reduction and the search-and-seizure analysis carry real weight.⁴

The 180-days-to-two-years range and the $10,000 fine in Section 12.35 are the criminal side of the base exposure, and a fixed felony grade regardless of amount means even a single small transaction carries it.² Where the elderly-victim element is alleged, the third-degree grade raises the range to two to ten years.³ A Section 12.44 reduction, where it is available, can place Class A misdemeanor punishment, or a Class A misdemeanor grade outright, on the record instead.⁴

A felony conviction is permanent in a way a misdemeanor is not, reaching civil rights, licensing, and employment, and a fraud-related conviction reads as an offense of dishonesty in every background check. There is frequently restitution in play, and companion charges can add their own exposure. Whether any particular outcome fits a given case is a fact-specific question answered from the record, not a promise.

A card abuse case is built on transaction records and on how the card was found, and what a person does before indictment affects all of it. The most common mistake is explaining the situation to an officer or investigator without a lawyer present, especially about where the card came from. Those statements are written down and used, and Texas law governs when an accused's statement is admissible and what warnings had to come first.⁵

A few steps help in nearly every case. Write down how the card came to be in the person's possession while it is fresh, and preserve any messages or records that bear on consent or on a legitimate explanation. Preserve anything documenting where the person was at the time of the alleged transactions. Hold on to all paperwork from the arrest. And do not contact the cardholder or any witness, which can complicate the case rather than resolve it.

This is general information about how these cases work in Texas. It is not legal advice about any specific case, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

A credit or debit card abuse case in Bexar County follows a felony path. Knowing the order of events makes the process less frightening and the decision points easier to see.

Arrest, magistration, and intake

Where there is an arrest, the person is brought before a magistrate who gives the statutory warnings and sets bond, ordinarily within 48 hours, under Article 15.17.⁶ The case is referred to the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney's intake division for grand jury presentation.

Grand jury and indictment

A felony proceeds by indictment. The case is presented to a Bexar County grand jury, and where the timing fits, a defense packet can be submitted to the intake division before the grand jury acts, including on the search-and-seizure issue and on transaction attribution.

Filing in a district court and discovery

After indictment the case is assigned to one of the Bexar County felony district courts, which have jurisdiction over felony cases,⁷ sitting in the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center on Dolorosa Street.⁸ The State's evidence, including the transaction records, the merchant surveillance video, and the reports describing how the card was recovered, is produced under the discovery statute, Article 39.14.⁹ The case is prosecuted from the Paul Elizondo Tower.¹⁰

Resolution

A card abuse case can resolve by dismissal, by suppression of evidence where the card was unlawfully obtained, by a Section 12.44 reduction to Class A misdemeanor punishment or grade,⁴ by a negotiated plea, or at trial. Which routes are realistic depends on the record.

A card abuse case does not carry a fast administrative clock, but timing decides what evidence survives, what can be presented before indictment, and what options remain.

Credit or debit card abuse cases turn on two questions: how the card was used, and how the card was found. Forrest Good PLLC requests the transaction record from each merchant, including the date, time, location, amount, and any point-of-sale surveillance video, through formal discovery under Article 39.14, and reads it against the indictment to test what the State can actually prove versus what it has alleged.⁹ Each transaction is examined for whether the State can place the person at that merchant at that time and link the person to that specific purchase, because aggregating multiple transactions into a single count requires the State to prove the chain.

The search-and-seizure analysis is often the load-bearing piece of the workup. Where the card was recovered during a traffic stop, an investigative detention, a search incident to arrest, an inventory search, a vehicle search under the automobile exception, or a warrant search, each step is examined for the constitutional and statutory authority supporting it, because evidence obtained unlawfully can be suppressed.¹² The Section 12.44 reduction is analyzed against the person's criminal history, the loss amount, and any restitution structure.⁴ Where companion fraud counts are charged, the overlap between counts is examined. Where the timing fits, a grand jury packet lays out the search-and-seizure theory and any attribution issue in advance of indictment, and any custodial statement is examined against the warnings that had to precede it.

The hour estimate

Forrest Good PLLC estimates this matter at 20 to 35 hours of attorney time, billed at $250 per hour. The lower end reflects a single-merchant matter with a contained record; the upper end reflects multiple merchant locations, a deep search-and-seizure record, companion charges, five to eight district court settings, and suppression motion practice. The pricing methodology explains how the charging instrument, the evidence load, and the procedural stakes drive the estimate.

The flat fee and what it covers

The starting flat fee is $7,500. It covers grand jury packet preparation and intake-division engagement before indictment where the facts support it; review of the financial records, transaction logs, and merchant surveillance video; the full search-and-seizure workup; every pretrial setting in the assigned district court; full pretrial motion practice including suppression motions and discovery enforcement under Article 39.14;⁹ and plea negotiation that includes the Section 12.44 reduction analysis.⁴ The fee shown here is honored while this page is published, consistent with Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 7.02(d).¹³

Any work outside the scoped fee is billed at $250 per hour and is disclosed in the written engagement letter before it begins. The engagement letter is the binding contract for the matter.

The first step is a conversation. The initial 30-minute consultation with Forrest Good PLLC is free and is scheduled through the office's Google Booking page. It is the time to walk through the available case materials, how the card was found, and which transactions the State has tied to the person, and to map out where the search-and-seizure and attribution issues stand before any setting. Bringing any documents the person has makes the half hour far more useful.

No attorney-client relationship is formed until a written engagement letter is signed; the consultation itself carries no obligation.

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