How section 75 and chargeback protection work for your credit and debit cards

If you use your credit card to buy something costing over £100 and up to £30,000 in England, Scotland and Wales, you’re covered by ‘section 75’ of the Consumer Credit Act. The protection still applies even if you only partly paid on your credit card, for example the deposit for a holiday.

This means the credit card company has equal responsibility (or ‘liability’) with the seller if there’s a problem with the things you’ve bought or the company you’ve bought them from fails.

• If the company has failed to supply the goods or services, or has supplied goods not up to standard, or
• If the company has misrepresented what it’s supplying - for example, a software supplier says a software package you’re buying will work with a particular computer when it doesn’t.

To qualify for protection under section 75, you need to use your credit card to pay for something costing between £100 and £30,000. This protection doesn't apply to anything you buy using a debit card.

The £100 minimum amount applies to each item or set of items you buy, rather than the total bill. For example, if you bought a dress and jacket that weren’t part of a suit, with each one costing less than £100, you wouldn’t qualify for the consumer protection under section 75.

Another example would be buying tickets for an event, or airline tickets. A ‘family ticket’ would count as one item but individual tickets for family members wouldn't.

You might be able to make a claim against your credit card company under a voluntary scheme called ‘chargeback’. See chargeback explained. 

You don’t need to pay the full price by credit card to get section 75 protection. It’s enough to just pay the deposit to get the legal protection.

For example, if you bought something costing £200 but paid a deposit of £20 on your credit card and the rest by other means (eg via debit card or cash), you would still be covered and you would be able to claim the whole £200 (and not just the deposit) from your credit card company if the goods didn’t arrive or were faulty.

You can also make a claim for more than just the price of the items. For example, if you could claim from the supplier for additional expenses (such as postage) or consequential losses (such as damage caused by a faulty item), then you can also make a section 75 claim for these with your credit card company.

If the purchase is made by a second cardholder, someone who isn’t the person who pays the bill, it's not so straightforward.

Any claim must be made by the main cardholder, as they’re the one who signed the credit agreement, and the credit card company might reject a claim if it wasn’t a joint purchase such as a family holiday or something for the main cardholder (such as a birthday present).

Check with the card issuer when you start your claim if you're not the main cardholder.

You might get section 75 protection when you use your credit card through PayPal to make a payment for goods or services that don’t require you to log into your PayPal account. For example, if you pay using a temporary PayPal guest account without logging into your own PayPal account, you might still be able to make a claim under section 75.

When you log in and pay with your credit card through your PayPal account, you won’t have section 75 protection.

PayPal also has its own buyer protection scheme. While only protecting you from issues such as mis-descriptions or items not turning up, it might help for items not covered by section 75.

See our full guide to Paypal or MoneySavingExpert's guide on section 75 and PayPalOpens in a new window

It doesn’t matter whether you use your card to buy something in the UK or overseas, you’re covered in the same way.

• The cost of your flights if the airline goes bust.
• The cost of your holiday if the holiday company goes bust.
• Additional expenses or consequential loss — for example, if you had to buy more expensive flights to get home after an airline went bust.

• In some cases, if you buy a ‘flight only’ from a third party, such as a travel agent, you might not be able to make a claim because the third party was only contracted to provide the tickets and not the flight.
• Any costs that you didn’t have to pay – for example, if you decided to extend your stay after the airline went bust (longer than you needed to) you’d be unlikely to be able to claim for extra costs.

If you pay for something on your credit card costing £100 or more and there’s a problem, firstly contact the company you bought it from, to give them a chance to put things right.

But if they don’t reply, or they won’t give you a refund, or it’s clear there’s no point in contacting them (as they have disappeared or gone into liquidation), you can make a claim against your credit card company.

Here’s how to claim:

• Write to the credit card company, stating what you bought, where and when you bought it and how much you paid. Include copies of receipts if you have them (if not, you’ll need some other proof of purchase).
• Tell them that you’ve tried to contact the company you bought the goods or services from and what the response has been – if any.
• Explain what you’d like the credit card company to do, which will usually be to refund the purchase price into your credit card account – be sure to state: “I am making a claim under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act”.
• Keep a record of the letter or email you sent.

Or you can fill in some details on the Which? website and they'll email you a template letter to send to your credit card provider. You can also use your credit card company’s app or website to make a claim online.

Debit card payments and purchases aren't covered by section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. But if you don’t get something you have paid for by debit card, and the firm is refusing to refund you, you can ask your bank to ‘reverse the transaction' and get your money back via chargeback.

Chargeback isn’t legal protection like section 75, which applies in the UK. It’s an agreement Visa, Mastercard and American Express have signed up to. The scheme enables you to claim a refund from your card provider if a purchase doesn’t arrive or is faulty.

Here’s how to get your money back via chargeback:

• Contact the company and try to get a refund first before making a claim.

• You must make a claim within 120 days of making the purchase. If the purchase is for something in the future, for example, tickets to an event, the 120-day limit starts from the day the event would have happened. 

• The card company will try to claim your money back from the company you’ve paid, by reversing the transaction.

• Be aware that claims can take some time to process because the card company must get the money refunded before it can pass it onto you.

• Chargeback works for debit, credit or prepaid cards.

If you're not satisfied with the response you get from your card company, you can make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. 

Find out more in our guide Claiming compensation if you’ve been mis-sold.