Having had terrible service from a funiture company, I’ve just had over £400 returned onto my cashback card. Hoorah for credit cards, if I hadn’t spent on one, I doubt the money would’ve come back this quickly and easily. This is all about Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, a wonderful piece of legislation that’s great for consumers, but if I’m honest is totally outmoded and out-of-date, and long may it remain so!
This is one of the reasons I always spend on a credit card. Of course I repay in full each month so there is never interest to pay, I use my card purely as a transaction method, and to earn cashback (see Best Cashback Card article).
Anyway, on with the story. I bought a piece of furniture from a company called JMC Trading, whose behaviour has been shoddy and terrible, shame on you – I wouldn’t touch you again with a bargepoll. It was bought last September for delivery in December. It didn’t arrive, I called numerous times, greeted by an answerphone or occasional surly members of staff who told me they didn’t know what I was talking about and they’d call me back. That never happened. After continuing to go through this until March, I called my credit card company and said ‘I want my money back’.
The card company checked it out and said “you paid for the goods legitimately, you’re not disputing that, so this isn’t really a problem.” Not so according to me, and I invoked Section 75 whiich means if you pay for goods worth over £100 even partially on a credit card then the credit card company is equally liable with the retailer (see Consumer Rights article for more). As I hadn’t had delivery of goods and didn’t believe they were ever coming, I wanted my money back and I held the card company liable. Today after Capital One admitted it too wasn’t able to contact JMC, it told me they’d disputed the transaction and the money is now back in my account.
Had I spent on a debit card, this would all have been much more difficult. There are no rights on a debit card, of course fraud can be disputed, but that’s different. Section 75 applies to anyone borrowing money, it was set up when HP was really starting to come into fashion, and when credit cards were still mainly a twinkle in the moulders eyes. In the modern world, many use credit cards as transaction cards to earn cashback, much as I do (see Best Cashback Cards article), it doesn’t make so much sense, but lets not worry, it’s great consumer protection.
So I shall continue to spend where possible on my credit cards, never paying interest, usually earning cashback, always gaining extra protection. Of course, if I needed the cards to cut the cost of borrowing, it’d be different, and I wouldn’t always spend on the cards building up debts. However for the debt free out there, use credit click every time!
