Section 75 and chargeback - how your card protects what you buy
When an online order never arrives or arrives broken, or the shop stops answering emails, most people start by chasing the retailer. That is the right first step, but it is not the only one. If you paid by card, your bank or card issuer may be jointly responsible for putting things right. Two separate mechanisms cover this in the UK. They are frequently confused, and knowing which one applies to your purchase changes what you should do next.
Section 75: a legal right, credit cards only
Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card provider equally liable with the retailer when something goes wrong. If the goods are faulty, never turn up, or are not as described, and the retailer will not resolve it, you can claim the full amount from your card issuer instead. This is not a favour or a scheme rule. It is a statutory right, and the issuer cannot opt out of it.
Three conditions have to be met. The item must cost more than £100 and no more than £30,000. The payment must have been made on a credit card, a store card or certain point-of-sale finance agreements, not a debit card. And there must be a direct relationship between you, the retailer and the lender, which is the detail that catches people out when a third-party payment processor sits in the middle of the transaction.
The most useful quirk is that you only need to pay part of the price on the credit card. Put a £50 deposit on a credit card for a £900 sofa and pay the rest by bank transfer, and the whole £900 is still covered. For any significant purchase, that single habit is worth more than any voucher code.
Chargeback: a scheme rule, most cards
Chargeback is not law. It is a set of rules operated by Visa, Mastercard and American Express that lets your bank reverse a transaction and claw the money back from the retailer’s bank. Because it belongs to the card scheme rather than to statute, it covers debit cards as well as credit cards, and it has no lower value limit. It is the route for a £40 order that never arrived, or for anything paid on a debit card.
The trade-off is that it is weaker. Your bank is under no legal obligation to pursue a claim, the retailer’s bank can dispute it, and there are deadlines. In most cases you have 120 days from the transaction date, or from when you expected to receive the goods or service, with an outer limit of around 540 days in some circumstances. If the retailer has gone into administration, chargeback often works where chasing the company does not, but it still depends on there being funds to recover.
Which one applies to your purchase
The two protections overlap more often than people realise, and where both are available, Section 75 is the stronger claim. Use this to work out where you stand.
Section 75 or chargeback?
- 1
Did you pay at least part of the price on a credit card or store card?
No Chargeback
Debit cards are covered by chargeback, not Section 75.
Yes Go on to the next question
- 2
Does the item cost more than £100 and no more than £30,000?
No Chargeback
Section 75 does not apply outside those limits, and chargeback has no lower limit.
Yes Go on to the next question
- 3
Did you pay the retailer directly, with no wallet or marketplace in between?
No Check the chain first, then chargeback
A payment intermediary can break the direct link Section 75 needs.
Yes Then you have your answer
-
Section 75
Your card issuer is equally liable with the retailer, for the full price.
| Your situation | Route |
|---|---|
| £250 jacket on a credit card, never delivered | Section 75 |
| £40 order on a debit card, never delivered | Chargeback |
| £600 flight, airline ceased trading, credit card | Section 75 |
| £90 credit card purchase, item faulty | Chargeback (below the £100 floor) |
| £500 on a debit card, retailer in administration | Chargeback |
| £2,000 kitchen, £100 deposit on credit card | Section 75 on the full £2,000 |
| Paid through a third-party wallet or marketplace | Check the chain first, then chargeback |
| Buy now, pay later instalments | Depends on the lender and the date; see below |
The gaps worth knowing about
Payment intermediaries can break the direct link that Section 75 requires. If a payment service sits between you and the retailer as the merchant of record, the chain of contracts that the Act depends on may not hold, and issuers have refused claims on exactly that basis. Paying the retailer directly with the credit card is the safer arrangement for anything expensive.
Buy now, pay later is the other significant gap. Interest-free instalment plans sat outside the consumer credit rules that Section 75 relies on until 15 July 2026, when plans from a separate BNPL lender came under FCA regulation and gained Section 75 rights against that lender. A plan agreed before that date, or instalment credit the retailer provides itself, is still outside them, so splitting a £400 purchase that way can leave you with less protection than putting it on a credit card would. Our guide to what Klarna and Clearpay actually cost goes through this alongside the other trade-offs.
Gift cards, cash and bank transfers carry no card protection at all. A bank transfer to a seller you do not know is the least recoverable way to pay for anything, which is why it is the method that fraudsters push hardest.
How to make a claim
Contact the retailer first and give them a clear, written chance to fix the problem. Card issuers expect to see that you tried, and an email trail is the evidence that makes the rest straightforward. Set a reasonable deadline and say what you want: a repair, a replacement or a refund.
If that fails, go to your card issuer and say plainly which route you are using. The words “I am making a claim under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act” or “I would like to raise a chargeback” matter, because they put the request onto the right process rather than into a general complaints queue. Send the order confirmation, the delivery evidence or lack of it, and your correspondence with the retailer.
If the issuer rejects the claim and you disagree, the complaint goes to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use and can overturn the decision. You need to have completed the issuer’s own complaints process first, and you generally have six months from their final response to escalate.
Summary
Section 75 is the stronger protection, but it is narrow: credit cards only, over £100, up to £30,000, with a direct link between you, the shop and the lender. Chargeback is broader and weaker, works on debit cards, has no minimum, and runs on a deadline of roughly 120 days. Paying even a small part of a large purchase on a credit card buys you the full protection of the first, which is the cheapest insurance available on a big online order. Read your other rights in our guide to what to do when an order goes wrong, or browse current deals.