Section 75 of the UK consumer credit act - Irish/EU equivalent?

54and56

Hi all,

Was listening to a UK radio show today which dealt with a lot of queries from Thomas Cook customers concerned about losing money on bookings they had made.

Those who had booked package holidays (flight and accommodation) were protected via ATOL however those who had only booked flights were not covered by ATOL but it turned out that providing the flight was booked with a credit card and was for an amount in excess of £100 Section 75 of the UK Consumer Credit Act provided them with protection.

I normally book flights and family holidays etc with my Debit Card but given the Thomas Cook situation if there is financial protection built into bookings made by credit card I'd switch going forward.

I've searched online to see if we have something similar here in Ireland without success. Can anyone shed light?

Cheers.

NSAman

I am not sure of the Irish Laws but as far as I am aware, there is insurance on purchases using a credit card. Not so with debit Cards.

if you read the small print on Credit Cards, there are a host of benefits by purchasing by credit card. Car Insurance, Travel interruption etc. etc.

I would never use a Debit Card for purchasing anything... its simply for taking out cash for me.

L1011

There is no varience in the ability to obtain a chargeback for unprovided services between debit and credit cards in Ireland.

Nearly every other country in the world does not have consumer laws equal to ours so you'll find many references to debit cards having worse or no protection from abroad. There is also no minimum value unlike the UK

Any additional insurance on a credit card is card issuer specific and not a legislative requirement

L1011

As for the legislation - as far as I remember its actually an utter mess based on the bank having become a party to the purchase contract and legal precedent/case law from relatively old cases so there isn't a nice clean single line to point at.

28064212

Unofficial source, but: http://www.moneyguideireland.com/protection-when-buying-with-debit-or-credit-cards.html

Many people in Ireland still seem to assume that they get more protection when using a credit card instead of a debit card … but they don’t.

And: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/chargeback-your-credit-card-s-built-in-protection-1.967775

Chargeback ... applies to all cards, including credit, debit and Laser cards