Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against HSBC UK Bank Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr B disputed two payments totalling £296.98 made on 19 December 2023 to purchase tokens from a merchant, claiming he was scammed into overspending. HSBC declined to dispute the payments, noting Mr B had authorised them and the merchant had provided the tokens as promised. The ombudsman found Mr B had authorised legitimate payments for a service that was delivered, and that HSBC acted fairly in not pursuing the dispute given previous unsuccessful attempts with the same merchant and Mr B's failure to provide supporting evidence. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Mr B authorised legitimate payments to a genuine merchant for tokens which he received, meaning the merchant provided the service paid for. Although Mr B felt scammed by how he used the tokens, this did not constitute a failure by the merchant to provide the service. HSBC acted fairly in not pursuing the dispute given the history of unsuccessful attempts and Mr B's failure to provide supporting evidence. The fact that the payments created an overdraft did not change HSBC's entitlement to charge interest in accordance with the account terms.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website