The safest ways to pay: which payments you can get back

When a purchase goes wrong — the goods never arrive, they are not what was described, or the seller turns out to be a fraudster — your chances of getting your money back depend heavily on how you paid. Some methods come with legal protections or dispute processes. Others work like handing over cash: once it has gone, it has gone. This guide ranks the common options and explains why.

Credit cards: usually the strongest protection

In the United States, the Fair Credit Billing Act lets you dispute billing errors on credit cards, which include charges for goods or services you did not accept or that were not delivered as agreed. You generally need to send a written dispute to the card issuer within 60 days of the statement that first showed the charge. For unauthorised use of a credit card, federal law caps your liability at $50, and many issuers offer zero-liability policies.

In the UK, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes the credit card provider jointly liable with the seller for purchases of a single item costing more than £100 and up to £30,000, if something goes wrong. That means you can claim against the card provider as well as the seller, which is particularly powerful when a business goes bust.

Card networks also run chargeback schemes, which let issuers reverse transactions in certain circumstances. Chargebacks are card-network rules rather than law, so they have time limits and conditions, but they are often available for both credit and debit cards.

Debit cards: good, but less than credit

Debit cards take money straight from your bank account, so while a dispute is investigated, it is your money that is missing. In the US, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act limits liability for unauthorised debit card use, but the limit depends on how quickly you report it: report lost or stolen cards promptly, ideally within two business days, because the protection shrinks the longer you wait. For disputes about the goods themselves, debit cards rely mainly on chargeback rules. In the UK, debit cards are not covered by Section 75, but chargeback is still available through your bank.

Payment services and apps

Payment services vary widely. Some offer buyer protection for purchases made through their “goods and services” option, typically covering items not received or significantly not as described. Their “friends and family” option, by contrast, is meant for sending money to people you know and usually has no purchase protection. Sellers who ask you to choose the friends-and-family option “to avoid fees” are asking you to give up your protection.

Instant peer-to-peer apps and bank transfer services are designed for paying people you know and trust. In the US, if you authorise a payment to a scammer through one of these apps, getting it back is often difficult, because you approved the transfer. Treat them like cash when buying from strangers.

Bank transfers and wires

Wire transfers are very hard to reverse. If you realise you have wired money to a scammer, contact your bank immediately and ask it to try to recall the transfer; speed matters, but recovery is not guaranteed.

The UK is an exception worth knowing about. Since October 2024, most victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams — where you are tricked into sending a bank transfer via Faster Payments or CHAPS — must be reimbursed by their payment provider, up to a set maximum per claim, subject to some exceptions such as gross negligence and time limits for reporting. Report to your bank as soon as you realise.

Gift cards, cryptocurrency and cash by post

These are the payment methods scammers prefer, because they are fast, hard to trace and almost impossible to reverse. The US Federal Trade Commission says plainly that anyone who demands payment by gift card is a scammer. No legitimate government agency, utility, landlord or business will insist on gift cards or cryptocurrency as the only way to pay. If you are asked to, stop.

Habits that protect any payment

• Pay the business, not an individual: the payee name should match the company.
• Verify bank details by phone using a number you found independently, especially if an invoice says the details have “changed”.
• Keep screenshots of listings, prices and messages until the purchase is complete.
• Stage large payments against progress, as in our contractor guide.
• Check statements promptly; dispute windows start running from statement dates.
• Never let urgency push you into a less protected method.

If it has already gone wrong

Contact your card issuer, bank or payment provider straight away, explain what happened, and ask what dispute or reimbursement options apply. Put it in writing and keep copies. Then report the fraud: in the US to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov (and the FBI’s IC3 for online fraud), in the UK to Report Fraud (Action Fraud). Be wary of anyone who contacts you offering to recover lost money for a fee; recovery scams target people who have already been scammed.