Section 75 protection query

davidmccambley

Has anyone had any problems using Sec. 75 protection on credit cards when an intermediary payment agency such as nochex, worldpay or paypal is involved? A colleague in work is having real difficulty getting a refund from paymentgatewaylive.com, I think its the merchant account part of Nochex. This company took a payment (of below £100) for another firm called storm monkey which then went belly-up. Her CC Company says they can't help because nochex took the payment and passed it on. All info or suggestions gratefully received.

jonesMUFCforever

It's a bit of a grey area is this.
What I would do is give examples of everyday occurences when this happens and a claim would be succesful eg you book a holiday at a travel agent - you pay the agent (not the holiday company) the company goes under and you would get your money back. Ask them what the difference is>?

Astaroth

The difference is to do with who your contract is with (and in a travel agent example then there is also the ATOL bond there too).

In another example, you pay company A to supply you with an item. Company A subcontracts the supply of these goods to company B. Before your item is delivered company B goes under. You can still get your money back because you formed a contract with company A (so they are liable) and paid company A.

With payment agents (as they arent true merchant accounts etc) you get into the situation where you form a contract with company A to provide the goods but pay company B the money to whom you have no contract at all. Company A goes bust but you cannot claim your money back as it isnt A that you have paid and B hasnt breached their contract so shouldnt lose their money.

Where my contract law is very rusty is the law on agents (and the definition of one) as it may be arguable that company B is an agent of A and therefore liable but I think this is a weak argument