Not upheld: chargeback dispute handling and claim closure complaint against Bank of Scotland plc trading as Halifax

Decision detail

Summary

Ms M purchased shoes for £88 from an online marketplace using her Halifax credit card in June 2025. After returning the shoes, she received a refund but was then charged £88 again in August 2025. Halifax raised a chargeback on her behalf under 'credit not processed' and provided a temporary refund. The marketplace defended the chargeback with evidence showing the June refund had been processed and the August charge was a separate transaction. Halifax closed the chargeback and reversed the temporary refund. Ms M complained that Halifax failed to support her claim, but the ombudsman found Halifax had reasonably applied the chargeback process based on the available evidence and did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Halifax reasonably raised the chargeback under 'credit not processed' based on Ms M's claim of non-refund. However, the marketplace's defence evidence clearly showed a refund had already been processed in June 2025 and the August charge was a separate transaction with a different code, giving the chargeback limited prospects of success under Mastercard rules. While Ms M believed something went wrong, she did not provide evidence that the marketplace admitted to a charging error, only that it gave different reasons for the charge. The ombudsman concluded Halifax was reasonable to require proof of error before pursuing the chargeback further. The timescales for both the chargeback process and complaint response were within regulatory requirements.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website