Sectio 75 CCA or Chargeback?

Duncanm

Hi.

I am currently in dispute with HSBC in relation to my VISA credit card. Back in January I purchased, against my better judgement a swegway for my daughter. It was bought on-line from the USA at a cost of £279.00. I paid using my credit card. The stupid thing went wrong within two weeks. Initially the company agreed to replace it and it was available for collection 24hrs a day from my work. Then the e-mails stopped being replied to. After repeated trying I sent HSBC the proforma section 75 letter making a claim for reimbursement of my money. HSBC have told me that it will use the VISA chargeback system which is proving to be somewhat convoluted although I have provide all the information that they have requested. My question is, can HSBC decide to ignore my section 75 claim and use their own process instead? I assumed that as section 75 is law and you have raised a claim using it, that the bank cannot ignore it and use their own tortuous process. I would be very interested to hear any other MSE members views or experiences.

Many thanks

Duncan

grumbler

Generally, they can simply decline your s75 claim and you'll have to sue them or go to the FOS. Is this what you want?

And I don't see how chargeback is more 'convoluted' than s75 claim. Both require proofs, and chargeback is a more formalised procedure than s75 claim.

Monkeychops16

Chargeback claims the money from the company where as s75 is holding the credit card company jointly liable. Thus they pay out of their own pocket. Chargeback regulations are set by the schemes (Visa, MasterCard and American Express) not the bank who issued your Visa card.

Duncanm

Thanks for the replies. So in essence the bank decides how to deal with the dispute and in my case just ignores s75 as there may be a financial penalty for them. Instead they use their own chargeback system. It does seem odd that when I contacted the bank to raise the s75 claim the customer assistant did not want to discuss s75 at all but simply told me that I had to use the chargeback system.

Seems a bit strange.

PeacefulWaters

Duncanm wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. So in essence the bank decides how to deal with the dispute and in my case just ignores s75 as there may be a financial penalty for them. Instead they use their own chargeback system. It does seem odd that when I contacted the bank to raise the s75 claim the customer assistant did not want to discuss s75 at all but simply told me that I had to use the chargeback system.

Seems a bit strange.

Chargeback would usually get money back faster.

But you can insist on S75. It's the law.

chattychappy

S75 is a legal right. It places obligations on the CC to pay out in the case of breach of contract or misrepresentation (subject to provisos). In some cases this means they have to pay out more than the original transaction value.

So you can make a S75 claim on a CC and if they don't pay, you can take them to court.

Chargeback is an industry scheme by which a CC can recover monies through the Visa/Mastercard network.

If a CC chooses to initiate a Chargeback and returns money to you, then in doing so they might well have met their S75 obligations.

There are situations where you are NOT covered by S75, but the CC might still be able to recover via Chargeback - eg goods under £100. There are situations where CCs have to pay out under S75 but cannot operate a Chargeback - eg a breach of contract a couple of years after the transaction.

So in summary: S75 is a legal right. Chargeback is a mechanism. CCs will attempt Chargeback if they can, because this way they are not out of pocket. You can make a "S75 claim", but how the CC meet this claim is up to them. If they wish to do a Chargeback then you should cooperate with them. In doing so, you are not giving up your rights under S75.