With Crack the knack of getting it back

DURING the lockdown I’ve been dispensing lots of advice about your right to a refund when events are cancelled or goods fail to materialise.

Many traders have been flouting consumer laws so I have been advising people to make chargeback and Section 75 claims.

But many readers are unsure what these actually are.

Here are the key things you need to know about these great protections you have when using a credit or debit card.

CHARGEBACK

Your card issuer can use this mechanism to reclaim money from the retailer’s bank if you do not get the goods or services you paid for – including if the company has gone out of business.

It can also be used if you are charged the wrong amount or are charged for a repeat payment after previously cancelling.

With chargeback, buyers also have protection if the goods or services they purchase turn out to be fake, faulty or defective – although if this is the case, you will need to return the goods to get a refund. To make a claim, all you need to do is contact your card provider and tell them you want to make a chargeback claim.

However, it is important to note that chargeback is a voluntary scheme operated by card providers and there is no legal obligation for them to do this.

There are also no guarantees your card provider will be able to recover the money for you, or that the trader will accept you were justified in taking the money back. In these circumstances, your claim will fail.

The usual rule is that you must make a claim within 120 days from when you made the transaction or were due to receive the goods. You will also need to provide as much evidence as possible to prove your purchase and show the issue you are complaining about – such as photographs showing the goods are faulty.

SECTION 75

First things first. You can make a Section 75 claim only if the purchase price of your goods was at least £100.01.

It doesn’t matter if you put less than this on your card – if the total purchase price was more, you can claim the whole amount under

THERE has been a surge in online shopping scams, with fraudsters putting up fake adverts for goods that do not exist.

The most popular seem to be in relation to hot tubs, animals, cars, Nintendo Switches and rental properties. The

Section 75. It is therefore a useful mechanism for claiming your money back if a product is faulty, or the company you bought from breaks their contract or goes out of business, or does not deliver what they promised.

As with chargeback claims, you simply contact your card provider and tell them you want to make a Section 75 claim.

In these cases, card providers have a legal obligation to deal with them, as per Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

You need to make a claim within six years of buying the goods or, in cases of non-receipt, when you were due to receive them.

However, there are a few circumstances where Section 75 does not apply.

These include the purchase of land, goods or services paid for by a secondary cardholder and hire purchase agreements, such as car finance.

You will also not be covered if you use an intermediary or payment platform, such as Paypal.

This is because the law says you are protected under Section 75 only if you communicate with the trader “directly”.

If you use a method of payment such as Paypal, you pay them and they then pay the trader.

fraudsters tell victims that the goods cannot be viewed because of the current lockdown restrictions.

This does seem feasible, which is why so many people have fallen for these scams during the pandemic.