When Section 75 Does Not Protect You

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes a credit provider jointly liable with a retailer when something goes wrong with a purchase. It is a strong right, but it has edges, and a lot of purchases fall outside it. The most common gaps are debit and charge cards, buy now, pay later taken out before 15 July 2026, and anything bought through a third party rather than directly from the trader¹.

The rules changed on 15 July 2026. From that date, BNPL agreements are classified as regulated credit agreements, so a single item costing between £100 and £30,000 bought through a BNPL provider carries the same Section 75 protection as a credit card purchase⁴. Purchases made before that date do not gain the protection retrospectively, which leaves a large group of older BNPL orders outside it³.

There are also structural exclusions written into the Act itself. Section 75 does not apply to a non-commercial agreement, or to a single item whose cash price is £30 or less, or more than £10,000¹. Section 75A, which covers linked credit agreements such as finance taken out through a retailer, does not apply to an agreement secured on land, or where the linked credit agreement is for credit exceeding £60,260 and is not a residential renovation agreement⁴.

Where Section 75 does not apply: the main gaps

The exclusions fall into a few groups, and it helps to know which one a purchase sits in before assuming a claim is possible.

The first is the type of card. Section 75 does not apply to charge cards or debit cards². A debit card payment, however large, gives no Section 75 right at all, and the same is true of a charge card that must be settled in full each month. The second is the item itself: a single item with a cash price of £30 or less, or more than £10,000, falls outside section 75, and a non-commercial agreement is excluded entirely¹. The third is how the purchase was made. Buying through a third party, such as a marketplace, voucher site, wallet or travel agent, usually removes the right, because the card provider is not linked to the supplier in the way the Act requires⁸. The Financial Ombudsman Service has warned that a buyer will not automatically be protected by either Section 75 or chargeback when purchasing through a third-party website⁹.

Section 75A, which covers credit taken out through a retailer to fund a specific purchase, has its own limits. It does not apply to an agreement secured on land, and it does not apply where the linked credit agreement is for credit exceeding £60,260 and is not a residential renovation agreement⁴. There is also a rule that catches people out after a dispute has partly resolved: if the seller offers a replacement or compensation and the buyer accepts it, a Section 75A claim can no longer be made¹⁰.

One point in the buyer's favour: section 75 applies even if the borrower exceeded the credit limit or otherwise breached a term of the agreement when making the purchase¹.

Buy now, pay later and Section 75

Buy now, pay later is where most of the confusion sits, because the position depends entirely on the date of the purchase.

For anything bought before 15 July 2026, a Section 75 claim cannot be started if the payment was made using buy now, pay later³. Most BNPL schemes were not covered by the Consumer Credit Act, so Section 75 could not be relied on at all¹¹. That is the single most important date on this page: it divides BNPL purchases into those with Section 75 behind them and those without.

For a single item costing between £100 and £30,000 bought on or after 15 July 2026 using a BNPL provider, the buyer is protected under Section 75, and the BNPL provider is jointly liable in cases of faulty goods, non-delivery, or the retailer going out of business⁵. The change came with the wider BNPL rules, which also brought affordability checks and a route to the Financial Ombudsman Service⁷.

It is worth being precise about what "single item" means in practice. The threshold applies to the item, not the basket, so a £90 item bought alongside other goods does not become protected because the total was higher. The £100 floor and £30,000 ceiling for BNPL sit alongside the older £30 to £10,000 range for section 75 itself, and the two are not the same test¹.

Klarna buyer protection: 120 days if an order goes wrong

Klarna is not only a BNPL provider. It is authorised as an electronic money institution by the Financial Conduct Authority, and in the UK it also provides regulated credit through Klarna Financing and Klarna Credit Card¹³. That mix matters, because the protection attached to a purchase depends on which product was used.

Where Section 75 does not reach, Klarna's own buyer protection policy covers a purchase for 120 days if it does not arrive or is not right⁶. That is a contractual policy rather than a statutory right, so it is worth reading the terms rather than assuming it mirrors Section 75. It also has a time limit: 120 days is shorter than the six years a Section 75 claim can generally be brought within, so a problem that surfaces late may fall outside it.

Klarna has also introduced an internal complaints adjudicator as an interim step until its customers can access the Financial Ombudsman Service¹³. For most BNPL agreements taken out from 15 July 2026 onwards, a complaint can be escalated to the ombudsman if it is not resolved¹². The ombudsman opened 130 BNPL loan complaints in the first quarter of 2026/27, which gives a sense of the volume reaching it¹⁴.

Unregulated BNPL or regulated credit: why the difference matters

Before 15 July 2026, deferred payment credit agreements were not regulated, which meant lenders did not need to be authorised by the FCA or follow its rules¹⁵. That single fact explains most of the gaps on this page: no authorisation meant no Section 75, no affordability checks, and no route to the ombudsman.

From 15 July 2026, BNPL agreements are classified as regulated credit agreements under the RAO, which brings them inside the FCA's rulebook¹⁶. The practical effects are affordability checks, escalation of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and the same Section 75 protections as a credit card purchase⁷. The change applies to agreements taken out from that date, not to existing ones.

There is a further distinction inside BNPL itself. Deferred payment credit is not regulated if it is provided by the same business that sold the goods or services¹⁵. So a retailer offering its own instalment option is in a different position from a third-party BNPL provider, even after the 2026 rules.

Regulation also matters for what happens when a debt goes wrong. Where an agreement is not regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, different enforcement rules apply, and a lender's failure to respond to a formal information request under sections 77, 78 or 79 carries a specific sanction: the creditor is not entitled, while the default continues, to enforce the agreement⁹. That lever only exists where the agreement is regulated in the first place.

What happens if you miss a Klarna payment

Klarna adds a £5 late payment fee for any payment made more than seven days after the due date, capped at two late payment fees per order⁷. So the most a single order can attract in late fees is £10, though the cap applies per order rather than per account.

The bigger consequence is the credit file. Klarna reports to Experian and TransUnion, so existing, late and unpaid balances are visible on a credit file¹⁹. Most of the big providers, including Klarna, PayPal and Zilch, run soft credit checks when an application is made²⁰. A soft check is not the same as a full search, but a missed repayment recorded on file can affect future borrowing.

If a payment is missed and a complaint follows, the response deadline depends on the type of complaint. Where a complaint does not involve a payment from an account, the business has eight weeks to respond²¹. For complaints about frozen accounts or blocked payments, the firm must look into things and get back within 15 days, either with a response or an explanation of when to expect one²².

What to do when Section 75 does not cover you

The first step is to establish whether a claim is possible at all. Section 75 rights are only available where the provider has misrepresented something or breached their contract²³. If the problem is simply that a purchase is unwanted, Section 75 is not the route.

Where Section 75 is unavailable, chargeback is the usual alternative for card payments. It is a scheme rule rather than a legal right, and it does not apply automatically to third-party website purchases⁹. The two routes work differently and have different time limits, so it is worth checking which fits the circumstances before starting²⁴.

If the retailer has stopped trading, the position depends on how the purchase was paid. A Section 75 claim against the card provider can still be possible where the card was used and the item qualifies, because the provider is jointly liable³. Where the purchase was made through BNPL before 15 July 2026, that route is closed, and the buyer's options are the BNPL provider's own policy and any chargeback route that applies.

For complaints about a BNPL provider, the ombudsman route is open for most agreements taken out from 15 July 2026 onwards¹². For earlier agreements, the provider's internal complaints process is usually the only escalation available, and Klarna's internal adjudicator sits in that space¹³.

Free, impartial help is available. Citizens Advice and MoneyHelper both cover consumer rights and payment disputes, and the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at complaints about regulated firms. Where a BNPL debt has become unmanageable, StepChange and National Debtline provide free debt advice²⁵.