Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against National Westminster Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr C complained that NatWest failed to raise chargeback requests for approximately £27,150 in gambling transactions made between October 2023 and October 2025, where the merchant masked transactions using different payee names. NatWest refused the requests, citing Mastercard's explicit prohibition on chargebacks for gambling transactions and the inapplicability of misrepresentation rules. The ombudsman agreed with NatWest's interpretation of the chargeback scheme rules and did not uphold the complaint regarding the chargebacks themselves. However, the ombudsman found NatWest's delays in processing the request were unreasonable and accepted the compensation offer of £175 as fair redress for the service failures.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman agreed with NatWest that Mastercard's chargeback scheme explicitly prohibits chargebacks for gambling transactions, regardless of whether the merchant used incorrect merchant categorisation codes or masked the transactions. The misrepresentation reason code 4853 does not apply because Mr C was fully aware he was gambling, all transactions were authorised, and he received the services as expected. While NatWest failed to process the chargeback request promptly, the underlying request had no merit under the scheme rules.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website