Questions we are asked most

Yes, and often you should. Chargeback, Section 75 and APP fraud reimbursement claims can all be raised directly with your bank or card provider at no cost, and if you are unhappy with the outcome you can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is also free.

We say this on every page because it is true and because you are entitled to know it before you pay anyone. Our free guides and letter templates are written specifically so you can run a claim without us.

Where we add value is on claims that have already been refused, claims involving several overlapping routes, and claims where you would simply rather not deal with it. Around two thirds of the enquiries we receive end with us telling the person to go direct.

Yes, and this is the situation we are most useful in. A refusal is not the end of a claim, it is very often the thing that unlocks the next stage, because it creates the final response you need in order to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Bring us what the bank said and why. A large proportion of the claims we take on are ones that have already been declined once, and the reason for the decline is usually a specific argument we can answer rather than a fundamental problem with the claim.

No, and you should report it regardless. A criminal report and a civil claim run in parallel and do not interfere with each other. Action Fraud will give you a reference number, which is useful evidence for the bank.

What is worth understanding is that a police report is unlikely to get your money back on its own. Action Fraud is an intelligence-gathering service and only a small proportion of reports are investigated individually. The reimbursement and chargeback routes are the ones that actually return funds, and they are open to you at the same time.

No. Personal Chargeback is an FCA-authorised claims management company. We can run card scheme claims, Section 75 claims, reimbursement claims, regulated complaints and Financial Ombudsman referrals on your behalf.

We do not conduct litigation and we do not give legal advice. Where a case genuinely needs a court claim, most professional negligence claims against unregulated professionals, and most commercial contract disputes, we will tell you that at the assessment and refer you to a solicitor rather than running a weaker version of your claim ourselves.

Yes, across the whole of the United Kingdom. Some limitation periods differ, a contract claim runs for five years in Scotland rather than six, and we apply the rules that fit where you are.

Our office is in Glasgow, though almost everything is handled by telephone, email and post.

Most resolve in eight to twelve weeks. Straightforward processing errors can be days. Cases that go to the Financial Ombudsman take considerably longer, and we will tell you the current published waiting times rather than guessing.

We give you a timescale at the outset and tell you if it changes. If we have gone quiet, chase us, that is a failing on our side, not an inconvenience on yours.

Chargeback is generally 120 days, but the crucial question is what the clock runs from. For undelivered goods it is usually the date delivery was due. For services, the date the work was due. For events, the event date. Claims people assume are dead frequently are not.

Section 75 runs for six years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and five years in Scotland. Unauthorised transactions must be notified within thirteen months. If you are close to any of these, say so and we will prioritise it.

The coins themselves almost never are, and we will not suggest otherwise. What is often recoverable is the money you paid in, the card payment to an exchange, or the bank transfer to an account the fraudster controlled. Both of those are regulated payments and carry the ordinary protections.

Where you were deceived into making a transfer, that is an authorised push payment and the mandatory reimbursement rules may apply. Where you paid by card, a dispute may be possible depending on what the exchange actually delivered. Tell us how the money left your account and we will tell you which, if either, applies.

Both, for payment-route claims. Chargeback is a card scheme rule rather than a consumer protection, so it applies to commercial debit and credit cards on the same reason codes and timescales. Micro-enterprises and small businesses are also eligible complainants at the Financial Ombudsman Service, which many business owners do not realise.

The limits are worth knowing. The mandatory reimbursement rules for scam transfers cover consumers, micro-enterprises and small charities but not larger businesses, and an ordinary contractual dispute between two trading companies is a court matter rather than ours.

No, and counter-intuitively, this is one of the situations where the card routes work best. A chargeback recovers from the retailer's acquiring bank rather than from the failed company itself, and a Section 75 claim makes your credit card provider equally liable with the retailer. Neither depends on the company having any money left.

Insolvency does make the deadline more pressing, because the events that led to it usually mean goods or services were already overdue. Tell us the dates before assuming the window has closed; the clock often runs from the date delivery was due rather than the date you paid.

Less than most people fear. Proof of payment, whatever the seller told you, and a record of your attempts to sort it out directly. Order confirmations, emails, chat transcripts, delivery promises and bank statements cover the great majority of claims.

If something important is missing we will tell you what would strengthen the case and whether it is worth the effort of obtaining it.

No, refused claims are a large part of what we do. A final response letter is the bank's position, not a determination. You can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman free of charge within six months of that letter, and the Ombudsman overturns a meaningful proportion of them.

Send us the letter. We will tell you whether we think the refusal is wrong, and why.

No.

We would rather turn work away than take a case we do not believe in, and we explain the reason rather than simply declining.

Never. We make no unsolicited contact of any kind, no cold calls, no texts, no social media messages, no door-knocking. If we telephone you, it is because you asked us to.

Fraudsters target people who have already been defrauded, sometimes posing as recovery firms, sometimes as the bank or the police. If someone contacts you unprompted offering to recover money you have lost, treat it as a scam, end the contact and report it to Action Fraud. Our guide on spotting a recovery scam sets out what to look for.

Please do check, and check us the way you should check anyone. Our firm reference number is in the footer of every page. Search that number on the Financial Services Register and confirm the details match, firm name, address and permissions.

Type the register address into your browser yourself rather than following a link somebody sent you. That single habit defeats most impersonation.

We use it to assess and run your claim, and for nothing else. We do not sell data, we do not share it with introducers, and we do not pass it to third parties for marketing under any circumstances.

Case files are kept for six years after closure to meet our regulatory and insurance obligations, then deleted. Full detail is in our privacy policy.

Yes. We do not offer cryptocurrency tracing or recovery. We do not accept work from lead generators who cold-call consumers. We do not guarantee outcomes, and we will not tell you a claim is certain when it is not.

We also decline any claim that would require us to misrepresent the facts to a bank or to the Ombudsman, however much a client would prefer that we did.

Tell us and we will investigate properly. Our procedure is on the complaints page: we acknowledge within five business days and issue a final response within eight weeks.

If you are still unhappy you can refer your complaint about us to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge. That is your right, and we remind you of it in our final response rather than hoping you forget.

No, and you should never give them to anyone. We need statements and correspondence, which you are welcome to redact. We will never ask for a PIN, a password, a one-time passcode, or remote access to your device.

Anyone asking for those things is not us, whatever the caller ID says.