If an airline collapses, a product turns out to be defective, or a seller simply vanishes, your credit card provider can be just as legally responsible as the merchant was — a protection most cardholders never think to use.
What Section 75 actually creates: joint liability
Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card provider "equally and jointly liable" alongside the merchant for a breach of contract or misrepresentation — for purchases between £100 and £30,000. This means you can claim directly against your card issuer, not just the merchant, for a full refund or other remedy — including in situations where the merchant has gone out of business and simply can't be pursued directly.
What's covered
Section 75 applies to a wide range of failures: goods that are defective or not as described, services not provided, a company that becomes insolvent before delivering what you paid for (a common scenario with airline or travel bookings), and general breach of contract or misrepresentation by the seller. The key requirement is that you paid at least part of the cost directly on the card itself — even paying just a deposit on the card, with the balance paid another way, can be enough to trigger Section 75 protection for the full purchase price in many cases.
The claims process
- Contact the merchant first if realistically possible, and give them a chance to resolve it.
- Submit your Section 75 claim to your card issuer with evidence of the purchase, the amount, and what went wrong.
- The card issuer has no fixed statutory response time for the claim itself, but if you then raise a formal complaint about how it's being handled, the issuer has 8 weeks to issue a final response under standard FCA complaint-handling rules.
- If refused, or unresolved after 8 weeks, you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
What this means practically
- Check whether your purchase falls within the £100–£30,000 range before assuming Section 75 doesn't apply.
- Remember that paying even a partial amount on your credit card can be enough to trigger the protection for the full purchase price.
- Keep your purchase confirmation, payment records, and any communication with the merchant as your core evidence.
- If your card issuer refuses or delays, escalate to a formal complaint, then the Financial Ombudsman Service if it remains unresolved after 8 weeks.
Related Kibbo Tools
Sources
- Which? — Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. which.co.uk
- Financial Ombudsman Service — Section 75 and chargeback complaints. financial-ombudsman.org.uk