Buying on Credit UK: Section 75, Chargeback & Your Rights

At a glance

• Section 75 price band: applies to a single item or service with a cash price of more than £100 and not more than £30,000, under section 75(3) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
• Who's liable: your credit card issuer becomes jointly and severally liable with the retailer for breach of contract or misrepresentation — you can pursue either or both.
• Debit cards: not covered by Section 75 at all. Chargeback (a voluntary card-scheme process, not a statutory right) is the usual route instead.
• Hire purchase: you don't own the goods until the final instalment is paid; once you've paid one-third of the total price, section 90 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 stops the creditor repossessing without a court order.
• Buy Now Pay Later: short-term, interest-free "Deferred Payment Credit" becomes FCA-regulated from 15 July 2026, and Section 75 protection becomes available for qualifying agreements taken out from that date — but not for earlier agreements.
• Free route if things go wrong: the Financial Ombudsman Service can investigate a rejected Section 75 or credit dispute at no cost to you, and its decisions are binding on the business if you accept them.

Overview

Buying on credit simply means a lender pays the retailer on your behalf, and you repay the lender over time or in one lump sum. Credit cards, store cards, hire purchase agreements, personal loans arranged at the point of sale, and Buy Now Pay Later products can all fall within this category, though the legal protections vary significantly depending on the type of credit used and, in some cases, on the date you took it out.

Three sources of law and regulation matter most for consumers buying on credit in England and Wales:

• The Consumer Rights Act 2015, which sets out the standards goods, services and digital content must meet — satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, and matching their description — regardless of how you paid.
• The Consumer Credit Act 1974, which governs how regulated credit agreements work, including Section 75's joint liability for card purchases and the specific rules that protect hire purchase customers.
• The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which authorises and regulates most consumer credit firms and is extending that regulation to Buy Now Pay Later providers from 15 July 2026.

Together, these give credit purchases stronger legal backing than paying cash — but only if you understand which protection applies to your particular way of paying, and act within the right process.

Key steps

1. Work out which type of credit you used. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 applies to qualifying credit card and store card purchases. Hire purchase and conditional sale agreements are covered by different provisions of the same Act (notably sections 90 and 99). Buy Now Pay Later is only partly covered, and the position is changing from 15 July 2026 — see below.
2. Check whether your purchase qualifies for Section 75. This protection applies to most regulated credit agreements where the cash price of the single item or service is more than £100 and not more than £30,000. Debit card payments do not count at all.
3. Go to the retailer first. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the seller is your first port of call if goods are faulty, not as described, or unfit for purpose. Put your complaint in writing, set out what you want (repair, replacement, or refund), and keep copies of everything, including receipts, order confirmations, and correspondence.
4. Contact your credit provider if the retailer won't help. If the seller refuses to resolve the issue, goes out of business, or ignores you, raise a Section 75 claim with your card issuer or lender. Under Section 75, they are jointly and severally liable for breach of contract or misrepresentation by the retailer, meaning you can pursue either or both.
5. Provide clear evidence to support your claim. Send your lender proof of purchase, a description of the problem, photos or expert reports where relevant, and a record of your attempts to resolve matters with the retailer. The stronger your paper trail, the faster the lender can investigate and respond.
6. Escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service if needed. If your credit provider rejects the claim or you're unhappy with their final response, you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge. The Ombudsman can make decisions that are binding on the lender if you accept them.

Section 75: the core protection for credit card purchases

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card provider jointly and severally liable with the retailer for a breach of contract or a misrepresentation connected with a qualifying purchase. In practice, this means you can bring your claim against your card issuer instead of, or as well as, the retailer.

Three conditions generally need to be met:

• You used a credit card or a similar regulated credit agreement — not a debit card, and not (currently) most short-term Buy Now Pay Later products, though this is changing (see below).
• The cash price of the single item or service was more than £100 and not more than £30,000, as set out in section 75(3)(b) of the Act. This is the price of the item itself, not the amount you put on the card — a deposit of £20 on a £5,000 sofa still brings the whole purchase within scope.
• There was a breach of contract or a misrepresentation by the supplier — for example, the goods were faulty, never arrived, or were misdescribed.

Section 75A of the Act extends broadly similar protection to some "linked credit agreements" — loans arranged specifically to fund a purchase of particular goods or services from a particular supplier — where you've tried and failed to get satisfaction from the supplier first.

Hire purchase: a different set of protections

Hire purchase (and its close relative, conditional sale) works differently from a credit card. You don't own the goods until you've paid every instalment; the finance company retains ownership throughout, and you have the right to possess and use the goods while you pay for them.

This distinction matters most if things go wrong financially:

• The one-third rule. Under section 90 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, once you have paid at least one-third of the total price of a regulated hire purchase agreement, the creditor generally cannot recover the goods without a court order, even if you're in breach.
• Voluntary termination. Section 99 gives you the right to end a hire purchase agreement early and hand the goods back, subject to paying any shortfall (capped, under section 100, at up to half the total price under the agreement).
• The goods still have to be of satisfactory quality. The Consumer Rights Act 2015's quality and description standards apply to hire purchase supplies as they do to outright purchases, so a faulty car or appliance bought on hire purchase can still be rejected or repaired under the Act.

If you're behind on hire purchase payments, don't assume the finance company can simply take the goods back — check whether the one-third rule applies before agreeing to anything.

Chargeback: useful, but not a legal right

Chargeback is a process run by card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) that lets your card provider try to reclaim money from the retailer's bank on your behalf. It's available for both debit and credit cards, which makes it the main option when Section 75 doesn't apply — for example, on purchases under £100, or paid by debit card.

The key difference from Section 75 is that chargeback is not a statutory right. It's a contractual process between banks under the card scheme's own rules, so time limits are shorter (often significantly less than the six years available for a Section 75 claim) and outcomes depend on the scheme's rules rather than the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Where both routes are available, Section 75 generally offers the more durable protection — but if only chargeback applies to your purchase, act quickly rather than waiting.

Buy Now Pay Later: the position is changing from 15 July 2026

Buy Now Pay Later has grown rapidly, and regulation has lagged behind it. Short-term, interest-free BNPL products — repayable in 12 or fewer instalments over 12 months or less — are now formally termed Deferred Payment Credit (DPC) by the FCA, and until now have sat outside FCA regulation and outside Section 75.

That changes from 15 July 2026. From that date:

• DPC lenders will need to be authorised by the FCA, or registered under its temporary permissions regime, to keep offering the product.
• DPC agreements will be regulated where the lender and the retailer are different businesses — for example, a BNPL provider financing a purchase from an unrelated online shop. DPC provided by the retailer itself, to finance its own sales, is not brought into this regime.
• For qualifying DPC agreements taken out on or after 15 July 2026, Section 75 protection becomes available — the same joint-liability protection you'd have on a qualifying credit card purchase.
• Agreements taken out before 15 July 2026 remain unregulated and outside Section 75, even if you're still repaying them after that date.
• From 15 July 2026, you'll also be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service about a DPC agreement if the lender's own response doesn't resolve things.

Before relying on Section 75 for a Buy Now Pay Later purchase, check the date you took out the agreement and whether the lender and retailer are genuinely separate businesses — both affect whether the new protection applies to you.

FCA regulation and why it matters

Most firms that lend to consumers, arrange credit, or act as credit brokers need to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Authorisation brings a set of ongoing obligations — including the FCA's Consumer Duty, rules on affordability checks, and requirements around how firms treat customers in financial difficulty.

You can check whether a lender is authorised using the FCA's firm-checking tools before relying on protections that assume regulated status. This is particularly relevant for newer credit products such as Buy Now Pay Later, where authorisation status is only now catching up with the products already on the market.

Escalating a dispute: the Financial Ombudsman Service

If your credit provider rejects your Section 75 claim, or you're unhappy with how they've handled a complaint about a hire purchase or other regulated credit agreement, you don't need to go to court to escalate matters. The Financial Ombudsman Service investigates complaints against financial businesses free of charge to consumers.

The Ombudsman looks at the facts, listens to both sides, and decides what's fair and reasonable, taking into account the relevant law (including the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015), regulations, and good industry practice. If the Ombudsman decides in your favour and you accept the decision within the specified timeframe, it becomes binding on the business.

Before referring a complaint, you generally need to have raised it with the business first and given it a reasonable opportunity to respond.

This guide provides general information about consumer protections when buying on credit in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law described was accurate as at July 2026 and is subject to change, particularly around the Buy Now Pay Later regime coming into force on 15 July 2026 — always check the FCA and legislation.gov.uk for the most current position.

Last reviewed: July 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: July 2027 or on legislative change.