Retailer or Provider Insolvency
The company you paid has gone into administration. Joining the creditors' queue is rarely your best option, and often not your only one.
Do not wait
The window runs during the administration
Weeks
Card claim versus years for a distribution
No assets needed
Recovery is from the banking system
What this service is, and what it is not
When a retailer, airline, energy supplier or tradesperson fails, consumers with outstanding orders are unsecured creditors. That is close to the bottom of the priority order, behind secured lenders, administrators' fees and preferential creditors. Recovery is typically a small fraction of what is owed, paid long afterwards, if at all.
Card claims work differently and better. Chargeback recovers your money through the card scheme from the acquiring bank, not from the failed company. Section 75 makes your credit card provider liable in its own right. Neither depends on the insolvent business having any assets, which is why they are so much stronger than a creditor claim.
Timing is the trap. The chargeback window generally runs from the date goods or services were due, not from the date of the insolvency, so a business that failed months after taking your order may have left you with little of the window remaining. People often wait to see what the administrators say, and that wait is what costs them the claim.
The practical advice is unglamorous: do not wait. Submit the card claim immediately, and register with the administrators as well. The two are not alternatives, and pursuing both costs you nothing except the time it takes to fill in a form.
Business challenges this addresses
Waiting for the administrators
The single most common and most expensive mistake. The card window keeps running while the administrators take months to write to creditors.
Told to claim in the administration first
You do not have to exhaust the insolvency before making a card claim, and being told otherwise has cost people their claim window.
Gift vouchers and credit notes
Vouchers are usually worthless in an insolvency. Where they were issued instead of a refund you were entitled to, that may be claimable.
Deposits on undelivered orders
Part payments toward goods never delivered are claimable, and where a credit card was used Section 75 may reach the whole contract.
How we deliver it
Every stage has a named owner on our side and a defined output. You always know what is happening and what comes next.
Typical duration: Most cases resolve in 6–12 weeks
-
Urgent timing check
We work out how much of your chargeback window remains. If it is short, we prioritise the submission over everything else.
-
Immediate card claim
Chargeback filed straight away rather than waiting on the administrators, and Section 75 in parallel where the purchase qualifies.
-
Register in the insolvency
We help you register as a creditor as well. It costs nothing and preserves the position if the card claims fail.
-
Protection schemes
ATOL, ABTA, the FSCS or the energy supplier of last resort process where any of them applies.
-
Escalation
Refusals go to the Financial Ombudsman with a full submission.
What you receive
- An urgent assessment of how much of your claim window remains
- An immediate chargeback submission rather than a wait on the administrators
- A parallel Section 75 claim where the purchase qualifies
- Help registering as a creditor in the insolvency as a fallback
- Identification of any protection scheme that applies
- Ombudsman referral if a provider refuses
What changes afterwards
Recovery from the banking system
Card claims do not depend on the failed company having assets, which is why they work when a creditor claim does not.
Weeks rather than years
Chargeback typically resolves in weeks. Insolvency distributions, where they happen at all, take years.
Full value rather than pennies
A successful card claim returns what you paid. Unsecured creditors rarely recover a meaningful proportion.
Claims of this kind we have run
$8,900 recovered after a tour operator collapsed with the holiday unflown
They had been told to register with the administrators and wait. Registering was right; waiting was not. By the time they called us the window on the deposit was almost…
- Recovered in full
- $8,900 Recovered in full
- From first call to filing
- 4 days From first call to filing
- What the clock actually ran from
- Travel date What the clock actually ran from
Frequently asked
No. That wait is the most common reason these claims fail. Submit the card claim now and register as a creditor as well, they are not alternatives.
Yes. The funds are recovered from the acquiring bank through the card scheme, not from the failed business.
Vouchers are generally near-worthless in an insolvency. Where the voucher replaced a refund you were entitled to, there may be a claim, it depends how it was issued.
Yes, though you cannot recover the same loss twice. If the card claim succeeds you simply withdraw the creditor claim.
Services that pair with this one
Section 75 Claims
On credit card purchases between $100 and $30,000, your card provider is equally liable with the retailer. That is statute, not a scheme rule.
Cancelled Flights and Holidays
Flights cancelled, holidays that did not happen, and providers that offered a voucher when you were entitled to cash.
Goods Not Received
You paid, the order never arrived, and the seller has stopped replying. Your card provider can reverse the payment.