How should you pay for a four-figure second-hand purchase?

Section 75 is the strong one, and it is a credit-card right

Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, your lender is equally liable with the supplier for breach of contract or misrepresentation. That means you can pursue the card company directly — which matters enormously when the seller has vanished.

The statutory limits are on the item's cash price: more than £100 and not more than £30,000. Below £100 it does not apply; above £30,000 it does not apply to that item.

It requires a credit card, a point-of-sale loan or certain catalogue accounts. Debit cards and charge cards are outside it, because the protection depends on a credit agreement between you, the seller and the lender.

One detail worth knowing: paying only part of the price on the credit card still brings the whole purchase within section 75, as long as the item's cash price is inside the limits.

Chargeback is the fallback, and it is not a legal right

Chargeback is a card scheme rule — Visa, Mastercard and American Express each set their own — rather than anything in statute. The Financial Ombudsman Service puts the usual window at around 120 days to raise one about goods or services, while noting the limit can be longer or shorter depending on the circumstances.

Its advantages over section 75: it works on debit cards and has no minimum or maximum value. Its disadvantages: it only recovers what was paid by card, and it is discretionary under scheme rules rather than enforceable as a right.

PayPal and the marketplace's own guarantee

PayPal operates a Buyer Protection programme covering items not received and items significantly not as described. It is a contractual programme with its own deadlines and exclusions, set out in PayPal's own legal documents — check the current terms rather than relying on a remembered day count, because they change.

On eBay, the Money Back Guarantee covers non-arrival, damage, faults and items that do not match the listing, provided you paid through eBay checkout with an eligible method. You have 30 calendar days from the estimated or actual delivery date to report.

These stack with, rather than replace, your card protections. A credit-card payment through eBay checkout gives you both.

Why a bank transfer is the one to refuse

A push bank transfer has no section 75 — there is no credit agreement, so the lender is not liable. It has no chargeback, because it is not a card scheme transaction. And it sits outside the eBay Money Back Guarantee, which requires payment through eBay checkout.

That is every layer of recourse removed at once. A seller pushing for a bank transfer on a high-value item is asking you to hand over the only leverage you have, and the request itself is the warning.

The 14-day cancellation right, and who it does not apply to

Buying at a distance from a trader, you can cancel at any time within 14 days of the goods coming into your physical possession, without giving a reason. That comes from the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

The regulations govern trader-to-consumer contracts. A private individual selling their own watch is not a trader, so there is no 14-day right against them — which is exactly why how you pay matters more, not less, on a private-seller purchase.

What to do, in order

Pay by credit card, through the platform

Two independent routes to a refund for the price of one transaction.

Keep the listing

Screenshot it. Listings get edited and ended; a misdescription claim needs the original wording.

Never move off-platform

It voids the marketplace guarantee, and it is the single most common setup for a resale scam.

Film the unboxing

Unbroken, from sealed parcel to item. It is the evidence every dispute process asks for and almost nobody has.

Report fast

Thirty calendar days from delivery on eBay, roughly 120 days for chargeback. The clocks start without you.

Where this comes from

Every figure and rule above is taken from the sources below. Rules, fees and brand practices change — check the source before you rely on it for a specific purchase.

• Consumer Credit Act 1974, s.75 — liability of creditor for supplier's breaches (the £100/£30,000 limits)
• Financial Ombudsman Service — Goods and services bought on credit (Section 75 and chargeback) — 2026-09-19
• eBay UK — Money Back Guarantee policy — 2026-09-19
• PayPal UK — Legal agreements (User Agreement and Buyer Protection) — 2026-09-19
• Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, reg. 29 and reg. 30 — right to cancel and the 14-day period
• Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, reg. 4 — trader and consumer definitions