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Section 75 Credit Card Claim

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iloveglee | 14:22 Fri 19th Feb 2021 | Business & Finance
12 Answers
Can anyone offer any advice about a failed Section 75 Claim. I just received a letter from the bank today to say they were unable to help due to it being too long since the transaction took place. This transaction took place in February 2020, and I was under the impression that there was no time limit on these claims.

The claim relates to tickets I bought for an event in Belgium last year which was cancelled due to Coronavirus. New dates were arranged which we didn't think would be suitable for us. Once I found that they were definitely not suitable I requested a refund from the ticket agency. The agency did give an arbitrary date by which a refund should be requested, at the same time as almost pleading with clients to not request a refund if they were able financially not to.

At the time we were not needing the money, and may have been able to use them. Since then many e-mails have been sent to the company to request a refund, and nothing has been heard from them.

I therefore started a section 75 claim. It has been very haphazard from the beginning, requesting documentation that had already been sent, sending some communications with a password secured access, others just by regular e-mail, or text.

I am unhappy about the way this has been dealt with, but am not 100% certain about whether this reason for refusing the claim is correct. It is definitely a Section 75 of the credit card regulations, not a chargeback. The other thing I am also not certain about is whether a purchase of several tickets, total transaction being over £100, comes under this legislation, or whether each ticket has to cost above £100.

Hopefully someone can help me clarify this before I decide whether to take this further.

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Quote:
"To qualify for protection under section 75, you have to spend between £100 and £30,000.

The £100 minimum amount applies to each item or set of items you buy, as opposed to the total bill.

For example, if you bought a dress and jacket that weren’t part of a suit, with each one costing less than £100, you wouldn’t qualify for the consumer protection under section 75.

Another example would be buying tickets for an event, or airline tickets.

A ‘family ticket’ would count as one item but individual tickets for family members would not."

Source:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-youre-protected-when-you-pay-by-card

As I read that, you're NOT covered by the provisions of Section 75.
Question Author
It does seem that this is the case then. None of the tickets cost £100+. This is not the reason for the refusal of the claim, which is too long since transaction. I am wondering then if they reverted to looking at chargeback but it was out of time for that I did know that.

I think many people have been caught out with this kind of thing, and of course we do still have the tickets which are still valid. In the end though, this event is not going to take place, as it involved bringing hundreds of choirs from all over the world, to Belgium. It's due to take place in early July this year, so I can't see that happening.

This event takes place every other year, and 2022 is already planned and arranged for an entirely different country, so it seems that Belgium has lost out big time.

If they cancel the tickets altogether, maybe there will be a chance. It's kind of annoying though, we had booked tickets for another concert connected with this event, but direct with the venue. Those refunds came through with no problem at all. Ticket agencies are universally awful, but sometimes there is no choice. Something should be done about them generally.
I would get in touch with with Citizen's Advice who can give advice on your options and they can pass it to Trading Standards to see if they want to get involved.

England - 0808 223 1133  [email protected]

Scotland - 0808 164 6000

Northern Ireland - 0300 123 6262

120 days from when you first know there is a probly
Problem, not probly
^^^ The 120 day rule only applies to chargebacks, not to Section 75 claims (which are only constrained by the 6-year time limit on taking court action in civil claims).
What is a chargeback in this context?
Sorry, my mistake. I knew there was a time limit of six years from purchase but wrongly thought there was an additional limit from when the problem arose.
Jackdaw, when you pay by debit you can make a charge back
Quote for Jack:

"How chargeback works:

Chargeback isn’t legal protection like section 75. It’s an agreement Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express have signed up to.

The scheme enables you to claim a refund from your card provider if a purchase doesn’t arrive or is faulty.

It works by the card company trying to claim your money back from the company you’ve paid, by reversing the transaction.

There’s usually no minimum spend in order to be covered by chargeback, but time limits apply for making a claim – usually up to either 45 or 120 days from making the purchase, depending on the type of card.

Chargeback claims can take some time to process because the card company has to get the money refunded before it can pass it onto you".

Source:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-youre-protected-when-you-pay-by-card
Thanks for that info.
Question Author
Yes I knew that chargeback would not be any use, although it couldn't have been possible to use it for this case. I didn't know there was going to be a problem with the transaction as I expected the tickets would be cancelled and money refunded. By the time I knew this wasn't happening, more than 120 day had gone by.

It was just strange that it was declined on the basis it was too late, even though it was a section 75 claim I was pursuing. I though of contacting them to ask them what they thought they were pursuing, they haven't exactly been very efficient. But having checked the 'small print' it seems that the section 75 would not be allowed anyway due to the purchase being for several tickets, none of which cost £100.

The only thing now it to try and pursue the ticket agency again, but may wait until I see if the whole event is going to be cancelled again. As far as contacting trading standards is concerned, I'm not sure whether they would have any jurisdiction over a Belgian company? But there must be someone who has. These agencies are a nightmare, there are very few of them that operate in a way that I would consider to be ethical.

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