buying from a site you are unsure about 9 January at 12:13AM edited 2 June at 4:17PM in Ask An Expert: Archive 2 replies 213 views

mirkle01

If you buy something from a site which you are unsure about, but use a credit card (and it's over a hundred pounds) as a form of insurance, can you get the money back if a) the site no longer exists and b) you have no email from the site acknowledging your purchase ?

MSE_Katie

Transcript of the video above:

If you purchase something that's worth between £100 and £30,000 and you use a credit card, you benefit from extra legal protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. And what that means in practice is that your card provider is jointly liable if something goes wrong and they should be able to refund you.

However, if you're not sure about a site and your scam alarm bells are ringing, I wouldn't go ahead and just purchase anyway using a card and using that as a safety net. It's really important to try and avoid scams wherever possible, but it is there if something does go wrong and something genuinely has happened that you couldn't have expected, and that includes being scammed. So it's a really useful protection.

If you purchase something that's worth less than £100 or you paid on a debit card, charge card, or like I said, under £100 on a credit card, then you might be able to use a scheme called chargeback instead. And that's where your card issuer tries to claw back the money from the other side. However, it's voluntary; It's not legal like Section 75, so it's not as strong and you need to act really quickly for the best chance of getting your money back.

Devon_Scrooge

There has been much discussion lately on an Angling forum about buying from dodgy websites, of which there are many. 

I would avoid any site that doesn't have a UK address & contact number on the website.

It is also worth checking with the companies house website for info on Limited Companies as to whether they are genuine, and a Google search for reviews on that company is also a good idea.