Something you bought went wrong, and you paid by card in the UK. You have two completely different routes to your money back — and they run on different clocks. A chargeback is a payment reversal through the card network: quick, usually about 120 days, works on credit and debit cards. Section 75 is UK law (Consumer Credit Act 1974) making your card provider jointly liable with the supplier: slower, but it stretches up to 6 years and covers £100–£30,000 per item. The question isn't which is "better" — it's which fits your facts, and in which order to try them.
Get your route in 60 seconds
Answer five questions about your purchase — amount, how you paid, when, what went wrong — and the free picker tells you which route to try first, with your deadline dates.
Think of chargeback as the sprinter and Section 75 as the marathon runner. The chargeback window is set by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) at roughly 120 days, normally counted from the date you paid — though it can depend on the situation, and your bank sets the exact clock. Miss it and the route is gone. Section 75 has no network deadline at all: it follows the ordinary legal limits for breach-of-contract claims — up to 6 years in England & Wales, 5 years in Scotland.
That asymmetry drives every decision below. If you qualify for both, the fast clock gets tried first and the slow clock waits in reserve. If the fast clock has already run out, the slow clock may be your only route. If you never qualified for the slow clock (debit card, under £100, broken payment link), the fast clock is everything — so you cannot afford to waste a day.
When Section 75 wins
Old purchases. Anything past ~120 days old where chargeback is dead. A sofa that fell apart in month eight, a holiday cancelled last year — Section 75 is often the only route left.
Big amounts. The £100–£30,000 band is where Section 75's legal force matters most. It's a statutory claim against your lender, not a goodwill reversal — and you don't need to have paid the full amount on the card. A deposit on the credit card can bring the whole purchase into scope, as long as the item's price sits in the band.
The retailer went bust. This is Section 75's signature win. With an insolvent seller there's usually no merchant bank to claw money back from, so chargebacks often fail — but your lender is jointly liable with the supplier even when the supplier has vanished. Tell your issuer to handle it as a Section 75 claim, not a chargeback.
The supplier won't engage. A legal claim against a regulated lender gets answered; a complaint to a vanished trader doesn't.
When chargeback wins
Speed. Chargeback is a network reversal: your bank asks for the money back through the system. Many banks give provisional credit during the investigation. Section 75 is a formal legal claim and gets investigated thoroughly — slower by nature.
Debit cards. Section 75 is credit-only, full stop. On a debit card, chargeback is your route.
Under £100. Section 75 needs the single item to cost more than £100. Below that, chargeback has no minimum.
Fraud and unauthorised charges. Section 75 targets a genuine supplier's breach or misrepresentation. For fraud, the bank's fraud process plus chargeback is the sharper route.
Clear-cut cases generally. Item never arrived, obviously not as described — the bank's job is mechanical and fast.
The try-chargeback-first rule
When you qualify for both routes and the case is straightforward, MoneySavingExpert's advice (from founder Martin Lewis) is unambiguous: try chargeback first. The reasoning is practical, not legal — under chargeback your bank is simply asking for the money back from the merchant's bank through the network rules, which it will usually do without a fight. A Section 75 claim, by contrast, is a legal claim your lender must investigate and may dispute.
The ordering costs you nothing, because the clocks differ: chargeback dies at ~120 days while Section 75 has no short deadline. Try the fast one first; if it fails, the slow one is still there. Two caveats. First, don't dawdle: raise the chargeback promptly, because every week spent elsewhere eats the 120-day window. Second, the bust-seller exception: if the retailer is insolvent, skip the queue and go straight to Section 75 — chargeback against a dead merchant usually fails, and some issuers will try chargeback first by default, wasting your time.
The link traps that kill Section 75
Section 75 needs a direct debtor-creditor-supplier link: you, your lender, the seller, in one clean chain. Break the chain and the protection usually falls away — even on a credit card, even over £100. The traps, per MoneySavingExpert's coverage table:
How you paid
Section 75?
Direct to the seller — in a shop, online, by phone
Yes
PayPal Guest Checkout with a credit card (not logged in)
Yes
Logged-in PayPal — balance, or card through your account
No
A marketplace that took your payment before passing it to the seller
No
Debit card, any route
No
Bank transfer or cash
No
BNPL offered directly by the retailer (not a separate lender)
No
Two things follow. If you paid through logged-in PayPal, your first port of call is PayPal's own buyer protection scheme — company policy, not law, but real money back for items not received or significantly not as described. As a secondary route, ask your card issuer whether a chargeback is available on the underlying card payment. And for future purchases over £100, MSE's golden rule: if in doubt, log out — log out of PayPal and pay with the credit card directly, so the link is unmistakable.
One genuinely murky edge: PayPal Credit (the credit product). MSE counts it as credit for Section 75 purposes, but paying through a logged-in PayPal account can still break the direct link. Worth asking the provider about; not something to rely on.
BNPL: the new route since July 2026
On 15 July 2026 the FCA started regulating Deferred Payment Credit — the interest-free instalment products sold as Buy Now Pay Later. For third-party BNPL agreements entered into on or after that date (Klarna, Clearpay and similar, where the lender is a different business from the seller), Section 75 now applies on the same £100–£30,000 terms: the lender is jointly liable with the retailer if the goods are faulty, misdescribed or never arrive.
The carve-outs matter. Agreements taken out before 15 July 2026 stay unregulated for their whole life — no Section 75, use the provider's own process. And BNPL offered directly by the retailer (the shop is its own lender) stays outside the rules. Since the average BNPL transaction sits well under £100, many everyday plans fall below the band anyway — the provider's own buyer protection is the route there.
The cash price of the single item — the £100–£30,000 band is tested here, on the item's price, not what you put on the card.
How you paid
Credit, debit, BNPL or bank transfer — this decides whether Section 75 is even on the table.
How the payment was routed
For credit cards: direct, PayPal Guest Checkout, logged-in PayPal, or marketplace middleman — the link test.
When you paid
Sets the ~120-day chargeback clock and the 6-year/5-year Section 75 window.
What went wrong
Breach, seller bust, fraud, or change of mind — fraud routes to the bank's fraud process, and change of mind gets an honest "neither".
The verdict names your route, explains why in plain terms, computes both deadline dates, and gives the next steps — including setting a calendar reminder before the window closes. Where the rules are genuinely uncertain (PayPal Credit, marketplace chargebacks), it says so instead of guessing.
Frequently asked
Chargeback is usually faster — it's a payment reversal through the card network, and many banks give provisional credit during the investigation. Section 75 is a formal legal claim against your lender and is investigated more thoroughly, so it takes longer. That's why MoneySavingExpert advises trying chargeback first for clear-cut cases, with Section 75 as the backup.
Pursue one route at a time — you can't be compensated twice for the same loss. The standard sequence is chargeback first (quicker, ~120-day clock), then Section 75 if the chargeback fails or the window has closed, provided the purchase qualifies (£100–£30,000 on a credit card with a direct link to the seller).
It depends how. Paying through a logged-in PayPal account (balance or card via your account) usually breaks the direct link Section 75 needs, so start with PayPal's own buyer protection scheme. PayPal Guest Checkout with a credit card keeps the link intact, so Section 75 stays available. Either way, ask your card issuer about a chargeback on the underlying card payment as a secondary route.
For third-party BNPL agreements entered into on or after 15 July 2026, yes — that's when the FCA started regulating Deferred Payment Credit, and Section 75 now applies to eligible agreements (£100–£30,000). Agreements taken out before that date stay unregulated, and BNPL offered directly by the retailer is excluded.
Go straight to Section 75 if you qualify. With an insolvent seller there's usually no merchant bank to claw the money back from, so chargebacks often fail — while Section 75 makes your lender jointly liable with the supplier even when the supplier has vanished. Tell your issuer to handle it as a Section 75 claim, not a chargeback.
General information only — not legal advice. Statutes and network rules change; your cardholder agreement may differ. Verify deadlines with your issuer. Sources: Consumer Credit Act 1974 s.75 (legislation.gov.uk); MoneySavingExpert Section 75 and chargeback guides (Oct 2026); FCA Deferred Payment Credit regulation (fca.org.uk). Rules verified 23 October 2026.
Chargeback Clock