Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against Lloyds Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr F disputed a £250 charge from a vehicle rental merchant for alleged damage and attempted to raise a chargeback through Lloyds' online chat on 24 September 2025, but the process did not complete. Mr F claimed this was due to a system glitch and that he was unaware the request had not been submitted, leading him to delay resubmitting until 15 November 2025, which was outside the 120-day Visa scheme deadline. Lloyds refused to pursue the chargeback as out of time. The ombudsman found no evidence of a system glitch, determined that Mr F failed to respond to a prompt causing the chat to end, and concluded that Mr F had sufficient opportunity to complete the chargeback before the deadline. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that chargebacks are governed by voluntary card scheme rules rather than statutory rights, and Lloyds must comply with Visa's 120-day deadline. The disputed transaction occurred on 14 July 2025, making the deadline 11 November 2025. Mr F's chargeback requests on 15 and 29 November 2025 were outside this deadline and therefore unlikely to succeed. The ombudsman rejected Mr F's claim of a system glitch, finding instead that Mr F failed to respond to a prompt in the online chat, causing it to end prematurely. Even if a glitch had occurred, the process stopped at a point where it would have been clear the request was incomplete. Mr F had sufficient opportunity to complete the chargeback before the deadline, particularly given his attempt on 10 November 2025.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website