Paying in the UK · Cards

Paying by card: your rights under UK law

Cards are the most widely accepted way to pay for games, and they come with the most legal protection. Here is what UK law actually gives you, and where its limits are when the purchase is a £4.99 pass rather than a £400 console.

Last checked 24 September 2026

General information, not legal advice

This page summarises UK consumer law as it applies to paying for games, with links to the law itself. For your own dispute, talk to the store first, then your card provider, and Citizens Advice if you need help.

Debit or credit: which to use

Protection	Debit card	Credit card
No surcharge for paying by card	Yes	Yes
Chargeback through the card scheme	Yes, any amount	Yes, any amount
Section 75 joint liability	No	Yes, single items over £100 up to £30,000
Refund of unauthorised payments	Yes, Payment Services Regulations	Yes, Consumer Credit Act and Payment Services Regulations
Minimum age to hold	Under-18s can get one through a youth account at many banks	18

For everyday game purchases the practical difference is small, because most items cost less than £100. For a console bundle, a collector's edition or a year of a subscription bought in one go, a credit card paid directly to the seller gives noticeably stronger protection. Pay it off in full each month so the protection doesn't come with interest.

No surcharges for paying by card

Since 13 January 2018, UK law has banned businesses from charging consumers a fee for paying with a personal debit or credit card. The rule is regulation 6A of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, added by the Payment Services Regulations 2017. A game store can't add a "card fee" at checkout. Business cards are not covered.

Section 75: when your credit card company shares responsibility

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card provider jointly responsible with the seller if something you bought is misdescribed or the seller breaks the contract. You can claim against either of them.

It applies to a single item priced over £100 and up to £30,000. The limit is per item, not per basket, so ten £15 purchases in one order don't qualify.
You only need to have paid part of the price on the credit card.
It covers credit cards, and since 15 July 2026 it also covers new buy now pay later agreements regulated by the FCA.
It usually doesn't apply if you paid through a middleman. Paying with PayPal, or buying a gift card and then spending it, generally breaks the link between your lender and the game seller.

In practice, section 75 matters for consoles, bundles and big editions, not for passes and currency packs. For those, chargeback is the route.

Chargeback: any card, any amount

Chargeback is a process run by the card schemes, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, rather than a law. It works on debit, credit and prepaid cards and has no minimum amount. Visa says you usually have up to 120 days to raise a dispute, and that a refund is not guaranteed.

Ask the store for a refund first, through its own refund page. Keep the reference number.
If that fails, contact your card provider and ask to dispute the transaction. They may call it a disputed payment rather than a chargeback.
If your provider won't take it further, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Account locks

Game platforms often restrict an account after a chargeback, sometimes removing access to games you already own. Always try the store's own refund route before your bank's.

Payments you didn't make

If a payment was genuinely not authorised by you, for example after your card details were stolen, the Payment Services Regulations 2017 require your bank to refund it by the end of the next business day after you report it, unless it has good reason to suspect fraud on your part.

You can be asked to cover at most £35 of losses from a lost or stolen card, and nothing at all for misuse in an online purchase, unless you acted fraudulently or with gross negligence.
You must report it without undue delay, and no later than 13 months after the payment left your account.
For credit cards, sections 83 and 84 of the Consumer Credit Act give similar protection, and the £35 limit doesn't apply to online purchases.

When a child uses a saved card

This is the most common problem with game spending, and the law is less helpful than people expect. If you saved a card on a console, phone or account and let a child use that device, or shared the password or PIN, your bank will usually treat the purchases as authorised. For credit cards, section 84(2) of the Consumer Credit Act says you can be liable for use by someone who had the card with your consent.

That leaves two routes:

Ask the store. Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Valve, Epic and Riot all have refund request routes, and many will consider purchases a child made by accident, especially the first time.
Point to the CMA's principles. The Competition and Markets Authority's Principles for online and app-based games, published in 2014, say payment must not be taken without the account holder's express, informed consent, and that games must not directly urge children to buy. Stores are expected to follow them.

Prevention is far easier than a refund. Our spending controls guides show how to require approval or set a limit on every platform.

3-D Secure and approval in your banking app

Since March 2022, UK online card payments normally need strong customer authentication: approval in your banking app, a one-time passcode or a fingerprint. Your card issuer can skip it for small payments of £25 or less, as long as the running total since your last check stays at or under £85 or there have been no more than five such payments in a row. Subscriptions are checked when set up and then renew without a prompt. If your bank should have asked for authentication and didn't, you are not liable for an unauthorised payment.

Foreign currency and conversion

Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Epic, GOG, Apple and Google all bill UK accounts in pounds. Some publisher shops show a currency at checkout; if it is euros or dollars, most UK cards add a non-sterling fee, commonly 2.75% to 2.99%. If a checkout offers to charge you in pounds at its own rate, known as dynamic currency conversion, the rate is often worse than your card's. Choose the store's currency instead, or use a card without foreign fees.

Buy now, pay later

From 15 July 2026 the FCA regulates buy now, pay later agreements, officially called deferred payment credit, where the lender is a different company from the seller. For new agreements that means affordability checks, clear information before you sign, support if you miss a payment, access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and section 75 protection. Among game stores, pay later options mostly appear for consoles and hardware, not for in-game purchases. Borrowing to buy in-game currency is rarely a good idea.

Cancelling digital purchases

Buying online normally gives you a 14-day window to change your mind, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. For digital content such as downloads, in-game items and codes, that right ends once the download or delivery starts, but only if you gave express consent and acknowledged that you would lose it. That is why stores ask you to tick a box. Store refund policies, such as Steam's two-hour rule, are often more generous than the law. Our refunds guide compares them.

If a game doesn't work

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says paid digital content must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If it isn't, you are entitled to a repair or replacement, and if that fails, a price reduction that can be up to a full refund. Faults that appear within six months are presumed to have been there from the start. If the content damages your device or other content, the trader must repair the damage or compensate you.

Subscriptions and auto-renewal

Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Dota Plus and monthly passes in free games all renew automatically. New rules under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 will require reminders before renewals and after free trials, easy online cancellation and a new cooling-off period. The government has said they will start in January 2027. Until then, set a calendar reminder and cancel from the account settings of each service.

Honest prices

Since 6 April 2025 the same Act has banned hidden compulsory fees, false "limited time" claims and calling something free when you must pay more than unavoidable costs. If a game store breaks these rules, you can report it to Citizens Advice, which passes reports to Trading Standards.