Section 75 UK: How Your Credit Card Protects What You Buy, and How to Claim

If you pay for something on a credit card and it goes wrong, the law lets you claim from the card provider as well as the seller. Most people only find this out after the seller has gone quiet or gone bust.

This is general information about Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. It is not personal financial advice or regulated debt advice.

What Section 75 actually says

Section 75 is part of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. It applies when you have a claim against a seller for misrepresentation or breach of contract, and you paid using certain kinds of credit. The key sentence in section 75(1) says you have:

In plain English: the card provider and the seller are both on the hook. Jointly and severally liable means you can claim the full amount from either one of them. You do not have to try the seller first, and the card provider cannot insist that you do.

Who really pays in the end

The law also says who carries the cost. Under section 75(2), the card provider is “entitled to be indemnified by the supplier”. So when your card provider refunds you, it can then recover that money from the seller. The card provider is only left out of pocket when the seller cannot pay, for example because it has gone bust. That is exactly the situation where Section 75 matters most to you, and where the card provider has the most to lose.

What is covered

Section 75 covers claims where the seller has broken the contract or misled you. In everyday terms, that usually means:

• the item is faulty or not as described;
• the goods never arrived, or the service never happened;
• the company went bust before delivering, for example a holiday company or a furniture shop;
• you were told something untrue that led you to buy.

Only part of the price has to go on the card

You do not have to pay the full price by credit card. If you put a £250 deposit for a £5,000 holiday on the card and pay the rest by bank transfer, the whole holiday is covered. The protection follows the purchase, not just the amount that went on the card.

The limits apply to each single item

The limits are in section 75(3)(b): there is no claim for “any single item to which the supplier has attached a cash price” of £100 or less, or more than £30,000. Three things follow from that wording.

• The test is the price of each item, not the total of your basket. Three £90 items in one order are not covered, even though the order comes to £270.
• It is the price the seller put on the item, not how much went on your card. A £101 item is covered whether you paid £101 or £1 of it on the card.
• A package, such as a holiday, is usually treated as one item at its full price.

In plain English: check the price of the thing itself. If one item costs more than £100 and no more than £30,000, and some of it went on a credit card, it is in range.

You can claim more than you paid on the card

Because the law gives you a “like claim” against the card provider, you can claim whatever you could have claimed from the seller. That can be more than the card payment: the full price of a cancelled holiday paid mostly by bank transfer, or the cost of damage caused by a faulty appliance. Do not settle for a refund of only the deposit if your loss was bigger.

Purchases abroad are covered too

Card providers once argued that Section 75 did not apply to things bought overseas. The House of Lords settled it in 2007 in Office of Fair Trading v Lloyds TSB Bank: the protection extends to transactions made abroad on a UK credit card. That matters for holidays, hotels and goods bought from foreign sellers.

What is not covered

Most refused claims fall into one of these gaps. It is worth knowing them before you pay, not after.

Debit cards and chargeback

Debit cards are not credit, so Section 75 does not apply. What you can ask for is a chargeback, where your bank asks the seller's bank for the money back. Chargeback comes from the card scheme's rules (Visa, Mastercard and so on), not from the law. It usually has a time limit of around 120 days, and the bank has no legal duty to win it for you. Section 75 is a legal right, which makes it the stronger of the two.

Charge cards

Some cards make you clear the whole balance every month. Section 75(3)(c) excludes this kind of agreement, so check whether your card is a credit card or a charge card before relying on it.

Paying through PayPal or a middleman

Section 75 depends on a direct chain: you, your card provider, and the seller you have the contract with. The law calls this a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement (section 12 of the Act). If you pay PayPal, and PayPal pays the seller, PayPal sits in the middle and the chain is usually broken. The Financial Ombudsman has turned down claims on this basis, including a holiday paid for through PayPal. The same problem can arise when a booking agent takes your money on behalf of another business.

What that means for you: for anything over £100 where the seller might let you down, pay the seller directly by credit card, not through PayPal or an agent.

Buy now pay later

Section 75 now applies to Deferred Payment Credit, the legal name for most buy now pay later plans, but only for plans taken out on or after 15 July 2026. The FCA's consumer page says “Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act is available” for these plans, and that any plan taken out before 15 July 2026 “will also remain unregulated”. A plan the shop provides itself is not covered either. Our article on the 2026 BNPL rules explains the gaps in more detail.

Loans from the seller, and purchases over £30,000

Section 75 is not only about credit cards. It also covers a loan arranged through the seller to pay for a specific purchase, such as a sofa, a kitchen or solar panels financed at the point of sale. Under section 12(b), a loan made under arrangements between the lender and the seller counts in the same way as a credit card.

In plain English: if the seller set up the finance for you and the item turns out faulty or the firm goes bust, you may be able to claim against the lender, not just the seller.

Above £30,000: section 75A

For bigger purchases, a separate rule can help. Section 75A covers a linked credit agreement, where the loan pays for a specific item named in the agreement. It applies where the item costs more than £30,000 and the credit is no more than £60,260. Unlike Section 75, you must try the seller first. You can then claim against the lender if the seller cannot be traced, has not responded, is insolvent, or you have taken reasonable steps against them without getting what you are owed.

Put another way, section 75A is a back-up for large purchases on finance, not an equal claim from day one.

Hire purchase and car finance

With hire purchase, the finance company itself supplies the goods, so your rights are against the finance company directly, without needing Section 75. Our car finance guide covers your rights on HP and PCP.

How to make a Section 75 claim

A claim does not need a solicitor or a fee. It needs to be clear, in writing, and backed by evidence.

1. Gather the evidence. Your card statement showing the payment, the receipt or booking confirmation, the advert or description you relied on, photos of any fault, and your messages with the seller.
2. Work out what you are claiming. A full refund, the cost of a repair, or your actual losses. Put a figure on it.
3. Write to the card provider. Use their complaints email or postal address, say clearly that it is a Section 75 claim, and include your full account number. A phone call alone is easy to lose track of.
4. Keep copies of everything, including the date you sent it.
5. Diary the dates. If the card provider says no, or has not given a final answer within eight weeks, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman. See if the card provider says no.

If the card provider says no

Card providers do turn down claims, sometimes wrongly. The complaint rules give you a clear timetable.

• The card provider has eight weeks to send you a final response. FCA rule DISP 1.6.2R requires a written answer “by the end of eight weeks” that accepts the complaint, offers to put things right, or rejects it with reasons.
• If you are unhappy with the answer, or eight weeks pass without one, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is free.
• Do not sit on the final response. Under DISP 2.8.2R, the Ombudsman usually cannot look at a complaint sent more than six months after the final response.

In plain English: complain in writing, wait up to eight weeks, then go to the Ombudsman within six months of the answer if you disagree.

The Ombudsman also has outer limits: generally six years from the problem, or three years from when you knew (or should have known) you had cause to complain, whichever is later. If you went to court instead, the usual time limit for a contract claim is six years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland under the Limitation Act 1980, and usually five years in Scotland.

In plain English: you normally have years to raise the problem, but once the card provider sends its final response, the six-month Ombudsman deadline is the one that catches people out.

Section 75 when you are already in debt

Section 75 is usually explained as shopping protection. It matters just as much if you are struggling with a credit card balance.

The claim is against the same firm you owe. If it succeeds, the card provider normally puts the money back on your card account, which reduces your balance. So if part of what you owe is for something that went wrong, a Section 75 claim is part of dealing with the debt, not a separate shopping matter.

A few practical points:

• Tell the card provider in writing that a Section 75 claim is open, and which part of the balance it relates to.
• Keep paying what you can afford while the claim is looked at. A claim does not by itself stop interest or collection on the rest of the balance.
• If you are in arrears, card providers must treat you with forbearance and due consideration under FCA rules. Our article on UK token payments explains how reduced payments work.
• Work out what you can genuinely afford first. The free Budget Planner builds an income and expenditure statement you can send to the card provider.

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