House of Lords rules against credit companies
The House of Lords has ruled that consumers who use their cards abroad will be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. The ruling was made following appeals against the Act by Lloyds TSB and Tesco Personal finance were dismissed.
This means that credit card purchases between £100 and £30,000 made abroad will be insured by credit card companies.
Mike Naylor, Personal Finance expert at uSwitch said:
“This landmark decision has finally laid to rest the issue for overseas transactions which has been rumbling on with credit card suppliers for several years. The decision to uphold it means that wherever in the world consumers use their credit card; they can enjoy the same protection as they do in the UK. This is especially important with the growth if Internet shopping where goods are often shipped to the UK from sites based overseas.”
In 2006 UK consumers spent £16.4billion overseas using credit and debit cards.