Pick your route — 30 seconds
| Your situation | Route | Why |
|---|
| Credit card · item/service cost over £100 (up to £30,000) | Section 75 | A legal right — the card provider is jointly liable, even if only a deposit went on the card |
| Debit card (any amount) | Chargeback | Card-scheme rules reverse the payment — ~120-day window |
| Credit card · £100 or under | Chargeback | Below the Section 75 floor — chargeback still works |
| Both could apply | Section 75 first | It’s the stronger, statutory route with no fixed deadline window |
- Classic Section 75 wins: the airline/holiday firm/retailer goes bust before delivering; goods never arrive; the item is faulty and the trader refuses; the service was misrepresented. The card provider pays even though the seller has vanished — that’s the whole point of joint liability.
- The £1 deposit quirk: the £100–£30,000 test is about the cash price of the item, not what touched the card. A £200 deposit on a £15,000 kitchen paid by credit card = the whole £15,000 protected.
- Watch the gaps: Section 75 usually fails when a third-party payment processor or agent sits between you and the seller (some marketplace and travel-agent purchases), and additional-cardholder purchases for non-family can complicate it. Chargeback often still works — try both.
How to claim — free, in writing, name the route
- Try the seller once (keep the evidence of trying) — the card provider will ask.
- Gather: order confirmation, receipts/invoice, photos of faults, the promises made (listing screenshots, brochure), and your correspondence.
- Contact the card provider and use the magic words: “I want to make a Section 75 claim” or “please raise a chargeback”. Front-line staff sometimes don’t volunteer these routes — naming them changes the conversation. Put it in writing or follow the call up in writing.
- State plainly: what you bought, the cash price, what went wrong, what you want back.
Bust company? Move fast on chargeback
Section 75 has no fixed claim window (normal legal time limits apply), but chargeback’s ~120 days runs from the transaction — or from the date a future event (flight, concert, delivery) was due to happen. If a firm has just collapsed, raise the chargeback now and let the bank sort the rest.
Bank said no? That’s not the end
- Ask for the refusal — and their final response — in writing.
- Take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service: free, independent, decisions bind the bank. You have 6 months from the final response letter.
- Banks reject plenty of valid claims on the first pass; well-evidenced FOS complaints regularly overturn them. Persistence is the strategy.
Never pay to claim
“Section 75 specialists” and refund firms charge a cut of money the law already owes you, for a letter you can write in ten minutes. And anyone who contacts
you offering to recover money from a collapsed company — for an upfront fee — is running a recovery scam:
check it.
Do this now
Find the order confirmation and work out the route from the table above. Then ring or message your card provider tonight and name it: “Section 75 claim” or “raise a chargeback”.
Refused? Final response in writing → Financial Ombudsman within 6 months. Track it as a case in My Sorted so the dates look after themselves.
The habit worth keeping
For anything big — sofas, holidays, building work deposits, event tickets — put at least part of it on a credit card (then pay the card off). That £1-on-the-card quirk is the cheapest purchase insurance in Britain. Not advice to borrow — advice on which plastic to tap.