Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against Prepay Technologies Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H paid £1,998 via a Prepay debit card for an online training course in November 2023 that promised lifetime access. When the supplier ceased trading and she lost access, she requested a chargeback from Prepay on 12 January 2026. Prepay declined, citing expired chargeback time limits under Mastercard rules. The ombudsman upheld Prepay's decision, finding that the applicable time limits (120 days standard or 540 days for ongoing services) had long expired and that pursuing an out-of-time chargeback would not comply with scheme rules and had no realistic prospect of success. Although the ombudsman sympathized with Miss H's situation, it found Prepay acted fairly and reasonably in declining the request.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman concluded that Prepay acted fairly in declining the chargeback request because the applicable time limits under Mastercard chargeback rules had expired. While sympathetic to Miss H's circumstances, the ombudsman found that Prepay could not reasonably depart from the scheme rules governing when chargebacks can be raised. Once the time limit expired, pursuing a chargeback would have had no realistic prospect of success and would not have complied with applicable scheme rules. The fact that Miss H continued to receive access to the course until the supplier ceased trading did not provide Prepay with a reasonable basis to pursue an out-of-time chargeback.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website