Almost every UK guide to travel credit cards mentions Section 75 in a single line: “you’re protected on purchases between £100 and £30,000.” Then it moves on.
That line leaves out the part that actually saves people money — including the fact that paying a £200 deposit by credit card can protect a £3,000 holiday, and the situations where the protection quietly doesn’t apply at all.
Here’s what Section 75 holiday bookings protection really covers, where it fails, and how to claim.
What Section 75 holiday bookings protection actually does
Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, your credit card provider is jointly and severally liable with the supplier for breach of contract or misrepresentation.
In plain terms: if the airline, hotel or tour operator fails to deliver what you paid for, you can claim from your card company instead of chasing a business that may no longer exist.
Three conditions apply:
- The item or service costs more than £100 and no more than £30,000
- You paid at least part of it on a credit card — not a debit card
- There’s a direct contract between you and the supplier
The MoneyHelper service publishes the official consumer guidance.
The deposit rule almost nobody explains
This is the single most valuable thing to understand, and most articles skip it entirely.
You don’t have to pay the whole amount on the credit card. Paying any part of it — even a small deposit — protects the full purchase price.
Book a £3,000 package holiday, pay a £200 deposit by credit card and the £2,800 balance by bank transfer, and the entire £3,000 is covered. The £100 threshold applies to the cost of the item, not to the amount you put on the card.
The practical implication is significant. Even if you’re determined to pay for a holiday from savings, putting the deposit on a credit card and clearing it immediately costs you nothing and protects thousands.
Where Section 75 holiday bookings cover applies to travel
Section 75 covers a wide range of holiday failures:
| Situation | Typically covered? |
|---|---|
| Airline goes bust before your flight | Yes, if booked direct |
| Tour operator collapses | Yes |
| Hotel doesn’t honour the booking | Yes, if booked direct |
| Accommodation significantly not as described | Yes |
| Service never delivered | Yes |
| You change your mind | No |
| You cancel for personal reasons | No — that’s travel insurance |
It can also cover consequential losses — for example, the cost of more expensive replacement flights home after an airline failed. What it won’t cover is costs you chose to incur, such as extending your stay longer than necessary.
One point worth knowing: Section 75 applies to purchases made abroad on a UK credit card. The House of Lords confirmed this in Office of Fair Trading v Lloyds TSB Bank plc in 2007, overturning arguments from banks that overseas transactions fell outside the Act.
The third-party problem
Here’s where most claims fail, and it’s the reason booking habits matter.
Section 75 requires a direct contractual chain: you, the card company, and the supplier. Book through an intermediary and that chain can break.
Booking direct with the airline or hotel names them as the merchant on your statement. Clean claim if they fail.
Booking through an agent or platform — Booking.com, Expedia, a travel agent — means the merchant is the platform. Your Section 75 claim relates to the platform’s obligations to you, not the airline’s.
This creates a specific trap with flight-only bookings through an agent. The agent’s contractual obligation is usually to supply you with a ticket, not to fly you anywhere. If they issue the ticket and the airline then collapses, the agent hasn’t breached its contract — and your claim may fail.
Whether a claim succeeds depends on whether the agent sold the holiday as principal or acted as a disclosed agent for the supplier. That’s a contractual question, not a simple rule.
The practical takeaway: book direct where you can. The convenience of a comparison platform can cost you the protection.
Other situations that break the chain
Payment processors. Paying through some intermediaries can break the direct link between card provider and supplier. PayPal has its own buyer protection, but it isn’t as strong as Section 75.
Additional cardholders. If a secondary cardholder pays and the primary cardholder isn’t the one benefiting, a claim may fail. For a family holiday where the main cardholder clearly benefits, it should be fine — but the safest approach is for the main cardholder to make the booking.
Booking for someone else. Paying for a friend’s flights when you aren’t travelling is unlikely to be covered, because the service is supplied to someone other than the cardholder.
Debit cards. No Section 75 at all. Chargeback is the alternative, and it’s a scheme rule rather than a statutory right — with a time limit, typically 120 days.
How to make a Section 75 holiday bookings claim
- Gather evidence first. Booking confirmation, payment receipt, and proof of what went wrong — the airline’s closure notice, the hotel’s refusal, correspondence.
- Contact your card provider using the number on the back of the card. Say explicitly: “I want to make a Section 75 claim.” Not “I want a refund” — the wording matters, because it triggers a specific legal process.
- Try the supplier first if they still exist. Providers often expect you to have attempted this, though it isn’t a legal requirement.
- Submit and wait. Claims typically take two to eight weeks.
- Escalate if refused. The Financial Ombudsman Service is free for consumers and handles Section 75 disputes.
That last step matters. Card providers do reject valid claims, and the Ombudsman regularly overturns them. A rejection is not the end.
Section 75 and travel insurance do different jobs
A common and expensive confusion.
Section 75 covers breach of contract by the supplier — they didn’t deliver what you paid for.
Travel insurance covers your circumstances — illness, injury, cancellation for a covered reason, medical costs abroad, and repatriation.
If you fall ill and cancel, Section 75 gives you nothing; the supplier hasn’t breached anything. If the tour operator collapses, travel insurance may not cover it depending on your policy, but Section 75 will.
You need both, and they cost nothing to combine — see our guides to what travel insurance actually covers and travel insurance for European travellers.
Package holidays have separate protection
If you’ve booked a package — flights plus accommodation sold together — you may also be covered by ATOL for flight-inclusive packages, and by the Package Travel Regulations, which oblige tour operators to refund cancelled packages within 14 days.
These sit alongside Section 75 rather than replacing it. Claim through whichever route is quickest, but know that more than one may be available.
The practical booking strategy
Putting it together:
Use a credit card for at least the deposit on any booking over £100. It costs nothing if you clear the balance.
Book direct with the supplier where price allows. The protection is cleaner.
Use a card with no foreign transaction fees so you’re not paying around 3% for the privilege — covered in our guide to travel credit cards for UK travellers.
Clear the balance in full. Interest at over 20% wipes out any protection benefit — one of several credit card mistakes that quietly cost money.
Keep every booking confirmation until you’re home. Claims fail on missing documentation more than on eligibility.
What about outside the UK?
Section 75 is specifically British, and it’s unusually strong.
United States. No direct equivalent. Chargeback rights under Regulation Z are reasonably robust but time-limited and scheme-based rather than statutory joint liability.
EU. No equivalent joint liability provision. The Package Travel Directive protects package bookings, and chargeback applies through card scheme rules.
Canada and Australia. Chargeback rather than statutory joint liability.
So if you hold a UK credit card, you have a protection most travellers elsewhere don’t — and it’s worth using deliberately.
Frequently asked questions
Does Section 75 apply if I only paid the deposit by credit card?
Yes. Paying any part of the cost on a credit card protects the full purchase price, provided the item costs over £100 and up to £30,000.
Is my booking covered if I used Booking.com or Expedia?
Your claim is against the platform, not the underlying hotel or airline. That’s usually weaker than booking direct, though claims against the platform’s own obligations can succeed.
How long do I have to claim?
Section 75 claims can generally be brought within six years of the breach, which is far longer than the chargeback window of around 120 days. Claim as soon as you can regardless.
What if my card provider refuses?
Escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It’s free, and it regularly overturns rejected claims. Check any firm on the FCA Register if you’re unsure who regulates them.
The bottom line
Put at least the deposit for any holiday over £100 on a credit card, and clear it immediately. That single habit costs nothing and makes your card provider jointly liable for the entire booking.
Book direct with airlines and hotels where you can, because agents and platforms complicate the contractual chain that Section 75 depends on.
And remember what it doesn’t do. Section 75 covers the supplier failing you. It doesn’t cover you cancelling, falling ill, or needing medical treatment abroad — that’s insurance, and you need both.
Sources
The statutory basis for Section 75 holiday bookings protection is the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The case establishing that it applies to overseas purchases is Office of Fair Trading v Lloyds TSB Bank plc [2007] UKHL 48.
- Consumer Credit Act 1974, Section 75 — the legislation itself
- MoneyHelper — official consumer guidance on card protection
- Financial Ombudsman Service — free escalation route for rejected claims
- FCA Register — check any card provider’s regulatory status
Whether a specific claim succeeds depends on the contractual chain in your booking. This article explains the general position, not the outcome of any individual claim.
Last reviewed: 15 August 2026. Consumer credit rules and card provider practices change — we review this article when they do.
General information only, not legal or financial advice. Section 75 applies to UK credit agreements and outcomes depend on the specific facts of each claim. Consult the Financial Ombudsman Service or a qualified adviser about your own situation.
