Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act protects you if you buy something on credit.
It's useful for larger purchases, making sure you stay protected. However, you must know how to use it, when and its limitations.
Below, we'll discuss the following:
Section 75 is part of The Consumer Credit Act 1974.
It states that your credit card provider is as responsible as a retailer or trader if they breach a contract or misrepresent their services.
It offers a legal way to claim money back on a credit card. The law is in place to protect consumers.
You can use Section 75 if a company you’ve used has gone out of business or didn’t give you the product or service you wanted.
This is particularly important with larger purchases.
You'll be automatically protected if you purchase goods or services between £100 and £30,000.
The law attempts to remove the risk of people ending up in debt from services they didn't get, which was faulty or not as described.
It covers purchases where some of it was used in cash, too. So, if you purchased something for £150, paid £50 in cash and £100 on a credit card, you're protected for the total amount.
It only covers credit purchases: credit cards, store cards or store credit.
Yes.
It works for purchases made in foreign countries and goods you've imported from abroad.
There needs to be a link between your credit payment and the supplier.
The main exception to this is PayPal, but your credit card company needs to have Commercial Entity Agreement with them. This is a legally binding contract that enables two companies to do business with each other.
You can check if your credit card has an agreement by asking your provider.
You can't use Section 75 if you take out cash with your credit card and then spend that.
This is because part of the purchase must be bought with credit to be protected by the law.
It won't cover multiple purchases under £100 that cost more than £100 together.
So, if you bought a hotel stay for £99 and a train ticket for £80 and didn't receive the expected services, then Section 75 won't cover you for the entire trip.
It doesn't apply to items under warranty. You'd claim the warranty from the supplier instead.
As mentioned, only credit is covered by Section 75.
It only applies to traditional credit cards like Visa and Barclaycard, store cards and in-store credit.
It doesn't cover charge cards like American Express. Payments via debit card aren't protected either.
We recommend trying to get a refund from the service provider first.
If that fails, you should:
You can complain if you don't get a satisfactory outcome from a Section 75 claim.
If you can't resolve your issue with your supplier or credit card company, contact The Financial Ombudsman Service.
They'll be able to assess your issue and recommend what your next stage should be.
Yes.
Section 75 states a retailer has 45 days to dispute a reversed transaction. They'll then have another 60 days to gather evidence.