The majority of us are now aware of the benefits of using our credit cards in terms of the protection it offers us in the event the supplier is unable to offer the goods and services we have paid for.
But did you know that you can also claim the money back if you have paid on your Visa Debit card? And unlike your credit card, which imposes a minimum spend of £100, you can claim back any amount of money.
The process is called Visa Debit Chargeback, and, as the name suggests, is a procedure in which the banks will ‘charge back’ the value of the original transaction directly from the supplier’s bank, and pass this amount on to you.
All banks who issue Visa cards have only recently agreed to process chargeback requests, and there is still widespread confusion over what it is and how it works. Therefore if you meet a dead end in your discussions with bank staff, persist. The facility is there for you to take advantage of.
Invoking the chargeback procedure
If you suspect your card has been used fraudulently, if the goods and services you bought with your card are faulty or if they do not materialise, then you should contact the bank who has provided you with your Visa debit card within 120 days, requesting they initiate the chargeback process. It does not mean you will automatically and immediately get your money back. It will initially become a ‘dispute’ in which the claim will be fully investigated by both banks before any money is returned.
Addendum: This Visa Chargeback Scheme also applies to Visa Credit Cards
See also:
Join our 
Pauline, the MD of Two Left Feet was on Watchdog last week with assurances he would be going through all unfulfilled orders and making sure all refunds were sorted. Therefore make contact again and hopefully they will get to you soon. Apparently you can make use of Visa debit chargeback if you paid via paypal.
These links will be of interest Pauline:
http://WHATCONSUMER.CO.UK/paypal-chargeback/
http://WHATCONSUMER.CO.UK/forum/consumer-rights-television-programmes/3716-bbc-watchdog-two-left-feet-complaints.html
I’d simply like to mention that the Visa chargeback scheme also applies to Visa credit cards – not just Visa debit cards. This could be useful if section 75 doesn’t apply because your Visa credit card purchase was for less than £100.
Hi Rognov,
I am not sure that this is the case, can you point me in the right direction?
Tony
I read about Visa Chargeback on martins Money Tips web page I had never heard of it and nobody else I knew had either. I downloaded a letter to my Bank, The Bank of Scotland and today received a full refund under the chargeback scheme in relation to the Globespan collapse, The information was invaluable, everywhere else I looked I was told to “forget it as I had lost my money”.
I have a Visa Debit card with Halifax and contacted them to double check that my debit card purchases would be covered under Visa Debit Chargeback.I escalated my query through 3 levels of authority only to have it confirmed that my Halifax debit card would not provide any purchase protection whatsoever. It was suggested that I could obtain payment protection by upgrading my account (presumably for a monthly fee).
I used my visa debit card to allow a company to look into my mortgage contract for ppi payments that were not mentioned.The company was shut down by (sra) start of March.I have phoned barclays and also gone to the bank to see if i could claim for chargeback as i had not recieved the service i paid for?Barclays will not and have not contacted me to let me know if i can or not.Every time i phone they refuse to put me through to the department to discuss it and when i go to the bank they tell me i will be contacted in 24hrs but it never happens
steve im in same situation what was the outcome with your bank and charge back any info may help thanks
Hello,
I bought an Ex warehouse stock from Holland using my master card and visa card. this happened last month.
The seller couldn’t process credit cards and wanted cash, when I told him that i cannot pay cash, he asked if we can do the transaction via his friends shop, so I accepted,
To this point all went fine, I got my goods delivered to London, but to my surprise a few of them were faulty, and even some stuff is fake.
This was to start my online business selling on eBay. I have sold few things, but since I had a couple of items returned to me by a customer I stopped selling.
I still have the transaction receipts and the seller invoice.
The full amount is 6000 euros, can I do a charge back based on this? or I lost my money because the transaction was through a different merchant.
I have all proof of correspondence, travel ticket, courier invoice, and pictures of faulty items.
Please advise.
Recently sold a vehicle for the sum of 18000 through my business and took a debit card as a apyment. The card processed no problem. Deal was done over the phone. Two days after the sale the buyer had listed the vehicle for sale a LOT cheaper than he had bought it…Im worried that i am about to become a victim of chrgeback scam what do you think???
Any advice?
I have a Visa Debit Card with Nationwide for years and was recently sent a repalcement upon my request. This did NOT arrive and I suddenly noticed from my statement that it has been fradulently used by someone who got hold of it in Mumbai.
I am on a work assignment from the UK to Bangalore, India. My Card was sent to my UK address but never arrived and now NAtionwide is refusing to accept any Liability as the card has been misused in India and I am currently in India too, which is a pure coincidence.
Not sure what to do.
Where to start.
on the 15th of march i ordered a lens from this company ( crazy cameras ) after many many emails and complaints, it still has not been delivered, i know there is many people in the same boat as i am, today 33days after i placed my order i recieved an email saying my order has been cancelled, i should recieve my refund in 5-7 days. i have reason to believe this to be true, they have lied to my on some many occasions, and the web site appears to be down. i’m not sure if i should wait or try to claim it back.
hi, just ove 2 years ago i enrolled on a home inspectors course with property professionals (formerly HIT) THEY HAVE GONE INTO ADMINISTRATION, and i have not been able to complete my course.Can i use the chargeback facility on my nationwide visa debit card to claim my £8800 fees back
Hi
The Visa chargeback scheme’s details seem to be a well kept secret, even Visa’s e-address is not working, does any one know when the 120 day limit starts? I made a payment to a firm in August 2008. This was a business deal, and I would see no benifits till Dec 2009. this did not happen and the firm has been stopped from working by the Ministry of Justice. I tried the small claims court, and also invoked the Visa Chageback with A&L, who claimed not to have heard of it, but now says that its too late, but I let them know as soon as the scam/ fault happened . is the 120 days from original payment or from the time of the problem occuring ? Thanks
Hi, Steven300
What a bummer, We live in a crazy country, we can decide to become junkies or obese and claim that means we cant work and will get sorted by the taxpayer, or we can try to better ourselves, and when some arse rips us off, no-one wants to help. The banks will tell you that the 120 days starts from when you made payment , but its more logical if it started from the date you became aware that you were not going to get what you paid for. The problem is that the banks will not allow us , their customers, to see the actual wording , Norwill Visa, so want us to trust them- fat chance. I am still trying and will let you know. never ever trust the British finance industry , imagine they are politicians and will therefore be lying.
I paid £250 deposit by Visa Debit Card (Lloyds) for a car from a large independent Jaguar specialist. I then found that the car had actually done 11,000 more miles than advertised so cancelled the deal. The garage promised me a refund but have failed to process this despite having assured me that they would. The car has since been re-advertised at the correct mileage so there is no dispute about the fact that the car was originally misadvertised. The garage is still trading and accepting card payments etc. Do I qualify for a “chargeback” ?
What was the outcome? Same thing happened to me
Hi there, wonering about the scope of chargeback. I bought a car in August last year, sales pitch was “pay the windscreen price and we give you a full warranty” the warranty was “in house” and not with a third party supplier. In march the gearbox failed, I called the garage immediately and they told me they would arrange a repair and would come back to me, the following day (Saturday) I called again and was asked to wait until Monday, for a full 4 days I heard nothing and my calls went unanswered, so I drove to the garage and found that the company had disapeared. All attempts to get the directors to pay for the repair bill have failed.
Question is:
I paid a deposit via Visa Debit and the balance, less trade in, in cash (I have the reciepts) – does the payment of a visa deposit mean I can claim under chargeback for the full amount of the purchase, or the repair cost.
Hi, I recently purchased a pair of ugg boots for £90 online, when they arrived, it was different to the pictures on the website and they were fake. I emailed the website so many times and no response. I paid with my Halifax visa debit card for the transaction. I was just wondering if anyone has had similar problem and did they manage to get any of their money back?
Thank you!
Hi
i recently brought a brand new dress off ebay which was faulty, the seller would not refund but open a dispute with ebay,it gave me a date in which to send the item back with tracking, i sent the item back to the address in which the invoice stated the sellers address,during the dispute and after posting item she changed her address, and claiming she has not lived at that address for the past 2 months and wants to no where return is,surely if she had changed her address 2 months ago her old address wouldnt be showing up,shes now not telling payapl she has recived item,ived added tracking and have reciept with address on and invoice of matching address,
i fear i wont be getting a refund through paypal,
but because i usd my credit card through paypal can i charge back, i think she is using to address to con me?
I bought a 13 week buspass from stagecoach whichis valid until 18July but I had nothing but problems with the service them almost injuring my baby and consistently upsetting my older children and refusing service discriminating against us because of the buggy and their age. I had to make many a complaint and only had rubbish replies if any and now had an incident on which the reply was a complete lie an when I wanted to uphold the complaint as it was so bad I was told I was banned from the bus service by some drivers and they now have put all the drivers I complaint about in the last 3-4years on my route and iniciated a fully fledged hate campaign and no one ever seems to be available at headoffice which they at first refused to even give me the address and phone no for and when my partner went in to ask for it they only gave a local no through which to get the headoffice no and have been very misleading on the complaints process to start with. I asked for my money back several times but everyone I spoke to has been very unreasonable and totally ignored this, so I am paying for a service I am not receiving can I do a chargeback as I used my visa debit and the buspass cost £110. which is a lot of money I am missing as I have asthma and can not get my little girl to school without this.
Hi
I was duped by a scam site known as swipebids.com.
They stealthily charge you $150 (around £101) for 300 bids on their auction site, they do this under the guise that you are just registering to us the site.
There are thousands of threads, youtube video’s, and official complaints about this site and all relate to the same misleading practice that results in them taking your money.
I contalcted my bank (Alliance & Leicester) within minutes of this transaction and before any funds were showing as being removed from my account, yet they said there was nothing they could do nothing to help me. They could not stop the transaction even though I was informing them that I had been scammed and they could offer no alternatives to help me. I asked them about shuttingmy account or tranfering all my money to my savings account and they just said that the funds would still be taken by the scammers and I would then incur charges for being overdrawn.
I would like to know if the VISA chargeback facility is an option for me to reclaim the money that swipebids.com have taken from me. There is certainly enough evidence against the scammers not only on the net but also in the form of official investigations into the company and news reports about their shady practices.
could someone please help me with this situation, I am a single dad with 4 children, the oldes of which is due to attend a prom and I am now unable to pay for her dress etc..
Hi
I bought £3K worth of wood from a company that has since gone into admin. To add to the frustration, they lied to me for 3 months about the status of my wood which was obviously never coming then stopped communicating with me. I contacted my bank (Barclay’s) to get a refund but by time the non-delivery dispute form had arrived I had a letter from real oak floors stating that they had gone into administration. So I sent the administration letter back to Barclay’s with the completed form.
Now I have a letter from Barclay’s saying that the only course of action they can take is to chase the debtors via their bank and that they cannot gurantee the success of this action. I can however gurantee the degree of success based on the statement I have from the administrators – they won’t have any success because there is no money in the pot.
I keep phoning Barclay’s and asking them why they don’t just use chargeback to get my money and why they think that getting the money from the debtors through their bank is “the only available course of action”. I’ve been communicating directly with VISA but this seems to have dried up when I ask the salient questions.
So, is it the case that chargeback works by taking the money from the debtors bank rather from the debtors? How can I make Barclay’s take this action?
Really hooping for some guidance…
Thanks
Dale
Hi,
I have an electrical problem with my 4 years old car, the coil light is coming on and I am losing power. I brought it to the local main dealer for the make 6 weeks ago and they upgraded the computer saying this may fix it (Charging €90, paid at time). However, 3 weeks ago the same thing happened again, I brought it back and this time they kept it for a week and charged me €410 (paid at time). 4 Days ago the coil light came on again but this time the car stopped and would not start. It was 11pm at night and I was 60 miles from home. I got them to tow it in the following morning and they are now asking for over €1,200, to fix it this time. They claim this is a completely new problem and therefore refuse to give me any money off the bill. However it gets worse, they say they will not give me the car back until it is paid in full. These guys are ripping me off and I am not sure if it will be fixed after all this.
My question is that, if I pay this by visa is there any way I can get this back (partly or in full)?