Section 75 and Removals Company

vaderag

I'm hoping someone can help here...

I'm about to book a removals company for moving home - they charge a 2% fee for paying by card...

Obviously, for this 2% (~£30) I get Section 75 peace of mind, but I'm wondering how far that stretches and if it's worth it in this instance?

I have contents cover which will cover me in transit from my home insurer, so don't really need that, so what other cover does it give me?!

Thanks

Browntoa

its not worth it.....


they should have their own insurance as well to cover mishaps , any decent local company should

PeacefulWaters

Consequential losses if they don't turn up and you have to pay more to another firm to rock up at short notice.

Ebe_Scrooge

As per the reply from Browntoa, any decent removals company should have their own insurance in place - in fact, I'd be avoiding them if they didn't.


The only way S75 protection would help you is if you pay the removals company in advance, then they go bust, or don't turn up on the day ( and then refuse to resolve the situation ). In that case, the credit card company would refund the money you'd paid - though that would probably be the least of your problems if you're stuck with a house full of stuff that needs to be moved there and then But you could also claim for the cost of having to call someone else in at short notice ( obviously likely to be very expensive ).

vaderag

Yeah, you're probably right! They're a BAR registered company too, so as the trade body presumably the BAR has some kind of backup should they go bust...

eddddy

vaderag wrote: »

They're a BAR registered company too, so as the trade body presumably the BAR has some kind of backup should they go bust...

I wouldn't rely too heavily on that.

The British Association of Removers
CODE OF PRACTICE

6.4 Where agreed services cannot be delivered because of company failure (e.g. liquidation or bankruptcy) BAR will endeavour to obtain the services of another BAR Member to complete the contract.

6.5 In the event that arrangements in 6.4 above are not feasible and pre-payments have been made which cannot be refunded by the Member because of company failure, the Customer may apply for recompense from the BAR Pre-Payment Protection Scheme. The BAR PPP Scheme is subject to terms and conditions available upon request.

Link: http://bar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/BAR-CTSI-Code-of-Practice.pdf

So they will endeavour to find another member.
(Does that mean they'll just phone 3 or 4 other companies to ask if they have a van available?)

And you may apply for your deposit back.
(So no guarantee that you will get it. And no compensation if you if you end up having to pay another firm twice as much at short notice.)

Conversly, section 75 protection is based on legislation. You can take the CC company to court, if necessary.

Plus, you only need to pay a nominal amount on the CC to get s75 protection - not the whole removal cost.

vaderag

eddddy wrote: »

Plus, you only need to pay a nominal amount on the CC to get s75 protection - not the whole removal cost.

Thanks for this - what is the nominal amount I need to pay? And does that cover the full amount even if I only pay that small amount?

eddddy

vaderag wrote: »

Thanks for this - what is the nominal amount I need to pay? And does that cover the full amount even if I only pay that small amount?

You could pay just 1p by CC - and the full amount would be covered.

(But I typically pay £50 or £100 on a CC - just because it seems more sensible and/or the removal firm may have a minimum amount that they will accept by CC.)

Make sure that it is clear that you are part-paying an invoice for the full removal service.