Credit Cards Online Information

CREDIT CARDS have some unexpected hidden merits One of these is a general statutory protection clause.

Some cards have purchase protection schemes. Make a purchase with your card and the product is insured against theft, loss or breakage for a certain period, providing it is not covered elsewhere. This can be extremely useful, especially for more valuable items that have yet to be added to your home contents cover. Most claims are for sunglasses and clothes. If you have this cover, remember to claim in the event of loss.

Another form of cover is travel accident insurance. This is not an alternative to holiday cover, as it only pays out in the event of injury or death while travelling when the fare or hire of a vehicle has been paid with the card. Claims are rare.

However, by law, every credit card has a superb form of cover. This is provided by section 75 (s75) of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act, and states that if a person has a claim for misrepresentation or breach of contract against a supplier of goods or services costing pounds 100 or more, but not exceeding pounds 30,000, and the transaction has been financed in whole, or part, by an agreement regulated by the Act, then the supplier and the creditor are jointly and severally liable.

As the Act regulates agreements for personal unsecured borrowing up to pounds 25,000, the majority of credit cards are caught by s75. Anyone who uses a personal credit card to pay for goods and services that are not provided, or not as described, can seek redress from the supplier, credit card company, or both. The claim can also include consequential damages.

The majority of claims relate to instances when a supplier has gone out of business. When Land Travel, a company offering coach holidays to the Continent went bust, the credit card companies received about 20,000 separate claims and paid out pounds 3.6m. All claims were met. Customers, who had paid any part of their holiday from Land Travel with a credit card, were encouraged to claim from their credit card company.

When there is a disagreement over a transaction involving a supplier that is still in business, credit card companies first ask their customers to attempt to obtain satisfaction from the supplier. If this fails, they will then take up the matter. On average, 20,000 cases are dealt with each year and pounds 20m is paid out.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:28 AM