Pay any part of a job with a cash price over £100 and not more than £30,000 on a credit card and, under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, your card provider is jointly liable with the trader if the work is defective or never done. Debit cards get chargeback instead.
What does section 75 actually say?
Section 75(1) is short and does a lot of work:
If the debtor under a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement falling within section 12(b) or (c) has, in relation to a transaction financed by the agreement, any claim against the supplier in respect of a misrepresentation or breach of contract, he shall have a like claim against the creditor, who, with the supplier, shall accordingly be jointly and severally liable to the debtor.
Translated: if you have a claim against the trader for breach of contract or misrepresentation, you have the same claim against the credit card company, and you can pursue either of them for the whole of it. Jointly and severally is the phrase that matters. You do not have to sue the trader first, and you do not have to divide the claim.
This is why it survives the trader going bust. The card company’s liability does not depend on the trader still existing.
What are the limits?
Section 75(3) excludes claims "so far as the claim relates to any single item to which the supplier has attached a cash price not exceeding £100 or more than £30,000". So the item must have a cash price of more than £100 and not more than £30,000.
The single most misunderstood point follows from that wording, and it is worth getting right: the threshold applies to the cash price of the item, not to the amount you happened to put on the card. Citizens Advice gives the worked example — a faulty oven costing £250 where £50 was paid by credit card and £200 in cash. Section 75 still applies, and the claim is for the full £250, not the £50.
For trade work that is the whole point. Putting a deposit on a credit card on a job priced above £100 can bring the entire job within section 75 protection, even if the balance goes by bank transfer.
What does it not cover?
- Debit cards. Section 75 is part of consumer credit law and applies to credit, not to money already yours.
- Bank transfer, cash and cheque. No section 75, no chargeback.
- Anything at or below £100, or above £30,000, by cash price.
- Broken payment chains. The section applies to a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement — there has to be the right relationship between you, the card provider and the supplier. Paying a third party who then pays the trader can break that link. If you are asked to pay someone other than the business doing the work, ask why before you do.
Business use, and cards taken out in someone else’s name, also complicate matters. If in doubt, ask your card provider what protection applies before you pay rather than after the work fails.
What is chargeback, and how is it different?
Chargeback is a process run by the card schemes under their own rules — it reverses a transaction back to the merchant’s bank. It is not created by statute, so it is not a legal right you can enforce in court in the way section 75 is. It is a scheme rule that your bank applies.
Its advantages are that it is not limited to credit cards, so it can help on a debit card, and it has no £100 floor.
Its disadvantages are that it is discretionary, the merchant can defend the claim, and there are time limits set by the scheme rather than by law. Citizens Advice puts the usual window at around 120 days, generally running from when you became aware of the problem, but because the limits belong to the scheme rather than to a statute, the only reliable answer is the one your own card provider gives you. Ask early.
Where both are available, section 75 is the stronger route. There is nothing to stop you asking your provider to treat a claim under section 75 and, failing that, chargeback.
How do you make a claim?
- Try the trader first and keep the evidence that you did. Both routes assume you gave them a chance to put things right, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you a right to repeat performance first.
- Contact your card provider in writing, not only by phone. Name section 75 explicitly.
- Set out the breach of contract or misrepresentation, dated, with what you paid, when, and on which card.
- Attach the evidence — quote, invoice, written scope, photographs, your correspondence with the trader.
- Say what you want: the cost of putting the work right, or a refund, or both, and how you arrived at the figure.
- Keep a copy of everything and note when you sent it.
What if the card provider says no?
Section 75 claims fall within the remit of the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use. Complain to the card provider first and get their final response; the Ombudsman expects the business to have had the chance to answer. The Ombudsman applies time limits of its own to when a complaint can be brought, so check them on their site rather than assuming there is no rush.
The Financial Ombudsman Service publishes its own guidance on section 75 and chargeback, including on the misconceptions above, and it is worth reading before you write, because it tells you what the Ombudsman will actually look for.
What to do next
Before you pay a deposit on any job priced above £100, ask whether the trader takes a credit card, and put at least the deposit on it. It costs nothing where there is no surcharge, and it converts a claim against one small business into a claim against a bank.
Then do the checks that stop you needing any of this. Our guide to paying a deposit covers what to verify at Companies House first, and every category page here sets out what the law requires of that trade and how to check it.