Question Time: Will my ex’s debt affect my credit score? Bridesmaid’s dress consumer rights? Credit card won’t give money back

0:02It's absolutely crucial that everybody looks at trying to rebroke effectively or get a new mobile phone contract. The purchaser has the consumer rights. That's a really good, I hadn't even thought about that avenues. What should my wrestler intro music be? It's not that you're married that links you, it's a joint bank account. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is the Question Time episode where you ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything within reason. And this week, you asked me, if you're buying your bridesmaids' dresses, does the fact it's for someone else affect your consumer rights?

0:41Help! My credit card won't give me the 34 grand back for incomplete building work. I'm a teacher. What's the best way to help financially educate my pupils? Will my ex-wife's debt affect my credit score? And then, we do say anything and everything, you asked me, what'd my wrestler name be? Play the theme tune.

1:03So I'm going to work for the world and every day I got a mouth I got a feet So I'm going to make sure everybody eats Hello everybody and welcome to this week's episode of Question Time, our first Question Time of 2026. Matt, did you have a good break? I did, I did, thank you. Did you? Did you miss me? I did actually. Well, I was listening to, because we put some best ofs out, didn't we? I was editing them. I did. And it was very nice to sort of get my fix. How did you like yourself on air when you were listening to The Question Time? I cringe a little bit, but I think everyone does that. Yeah, I don't like watching myself or listening to myself.

1:47Partly because I'm a lot older than I am in my head. But we'll move on from that. Well, actually, before we do, my contract is due up in a couple of days. So I did a comparison for my phone. I was thinking it's sort of about talking for work there everyone's sitting there going no the curator of questions we cannot have Matt go I'm off your phone my phone so I've managed to get so at the moment I'm paying about £27 a month just for I know because it was before all the prices dropped so I was paying it was quite a good deal at the time anyway now I've got it down to£8 a month instead and is that unlimited data more data it's not unlimited but it's more data and it's with EU roaming included as well.

2:29Okay, well done. I mean, pretty much anyone who's paying anything over 10 quid for a mobile phone these days is paying way, way too much. I had that in my head. And if you're out of contract, because you can get virtually unlimited data depending on which network for less than a 10 or in quite in a lot of cases. So well done. Yeah, it's absolutely worth looking at. Do not let your mobile... That's really interesting when we talk about that, that what we've seen is people who are within contract, we've seen inflation there where prices continue to go up and they're put up above inflation each year.

2:57But if you're just looking at the new cheapest SIMs, we've seen real deflation where you can now get SIMs so much cheaper for the same amount of data that you used to be able to get. And because of that division between the two, it's absolutely crucial that everybody looks at trying to re-broke effectively or get a new mobile phone contract. But it's not about you, Matt. It's not. No, it's not. It's not. Let's do our first question, which has to be a read. It is. Because we never do a caller first. No, we don't. It is a read. It's a question that Kath has emailed in to martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk.

3:30She says, hello, I was very interested in your recent podcast. Can you explain why buying something which fails as a gift for someone else to use, e.g. a bridesmaid dress, is a tricky area? Surely the rights to sad fart should apply no matter who will wear it or use it, providing the purchaser slash applicant was the credit card holder. and quite often bridesmaids buy their own dresses or their family do. Do you advise people to use a credit card always? Is the issue because it's a wear once item and people could just wear and then complain? OK, there's a lot going on here. Now, before I get anywhere, let me just explain to people who don't know what sad fart is.

4:08It's my mnemonic for remembering your consumer right. So when you buy something in the UK, when you buy an item, a good, it should be of satisfactory quality as described. that's your sad, fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time. So that's sad fart. And that's how I get people to remember it. And it's brilliant, Kath, that you've remembered it and you know what it means. Now you say to me, the sad fart right should apply no matter who will wear it or use it, providing the purchaser applicant was the credit card holder. So let's just first of all start when we're talking about retailers before we get into the credit card holder issue.

4:46When you're talking about retailers, the purchaser has the consumer rights, which is why when we get in the run-up to Christmas, I explain to people, you know, get yourself a gift receipt or even put a note on your receipt saying that you're going to be giving this to someone which transfers the rights without, although it very rarely happens, there could be an argument from a retailer if the gift recipient took it back and they didn't have a gift receipt, they could say, well, I'm sorry, you have no legal rights with us. It doesn't really happen, but just being technical on that. So you're absolutely right that the sad fart rights should apply no matter who will wear or use it, but the rights apply to the purchaser, even if they're not the user.

5:24We then go on to the credit card. Now, regular listeners will know all about Section 75 because we discuss it quite a lot. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act says that if you pay for an item, any portion of an item on a credit card, and that item costs over£100 and up to£30 ,000 maximum, then the credit card company is jointly liable with the retailer. So just to be really plain, you could put£10 on a credit card for an item costing£1 ,000 and it would be jointly liable for the entire amount with the retailer. Which means you can choose to put your complaint about something being faulty to the credit card company.

6:02You don't have to go to the retailer first. It's usually simpler. You have exactly the same rights with the credit card company as if it were the retailer, which means the same sad fart rights apply. So one of the keys to section 75 is there needs to be a direct relationship between the purchase and the debt. So some examples that are much more clear cut of things that can break section 75. If you buy through a travel agent, you're paying a travel agent, a travel agent is paying for the flights and hotel and therefore it actually breaks your section 75. There is not that direct relationship. Second card holders, it is very tricky if you have a second credit card because remember there's no joint credit cards.

6:45If you have a second credit card and you're buying something for yourself as a second credit card holder, that will also tend not to be covered under section 75. If the second card holder were buying something for the main account holder, it would be covered. So going on to your question, why is buying a bridesmaid's dress a tricky area? Because if it isn't the bridesmaid buying the bridesmaid dress, then the question is, is the person who has the credit card, who has the debt agreement, buying something for their own benefit? Now, if it was for their wedding, you could argue that a bridesmaid, you're just dressing somebody up for your wedding, so you benefit.

7:18And that's certainly what I would argue. Or you're the parents of the bride and groom, you could argue the same. But it is a grey area. And I suspect if you did go to the credit card company, let's say you bought a bridesmaid's dress, it wasn't delivered because the bride, the dress company went bust. And so you went to the credit card company asking for a refund under section 75. I think you would probably have them reject you and then you'd have to go to the ombudsman for the ombudsman to decide. And you say to me, do you advise people to use a credit card always? Is the issue because wear one item and people could just wear and complain.

7:52Put some of the cost on a credit card paid off in full because it gives you that extra protection. And because if you're going to the credit card company, there's an issue you can go to the ombudsman. If you have a consumer rights issue with a retailer, then you have to take them to court, which is a much trickier process. So it is a valuable additional consumer self-defense to pay for some on a credit card. And if Section 75 doesn't work, then there's a secondary protection called chargeback available for all cards, credit and debit cards. and for smaller amounts than£100, that's useful too. So a relatively complicated answer.

8:25I hope I've got there, but ultimately you ask, why is it a grey area? Because it's a grey area. Right, Matt. So second question, regular listeners. We all know what it is. You've got a caller. Of course. Why break from tradition? Mark is in Northumberland and he's here. Hi, Mark. Hi. Hello, Mark. What can we do for you? Hi, Martin. Yeah, it's really a question about some advice or guidance around Section 75. Oh, how funny. Just the first question was on Section 75. It's like a Section 75 special. Right, okay. Okay, that's good. Well, the story is we signed up with a builder for some conversion work at our house just to convert a small space into a home office.

9:12It wasn't a massive project, but fairly significant. We checked out the builder. They seemed okay, and we signed a contract with them. But part of what they wanted, they wanted quite a significant deposit up front. It was 25%. It was about 8 ,500 pounds. So we were a little bit wary. So we decided that we'd put part of that deposit on a credit card. So we put 2 ,500 on a credit card and paid the rest from our savings. There were some delays and some problems with planning permission. It took them a while to get started. But they eventually did start. But they only completed a small part of the work, and we paid another£2 ,500 for that.

9:51And again, that was via the credit card. So by this point, and this was July last year, we'd paid£11 ,000 in total. Then there was more delays, excuses, and eventually it fell silent. And I checked out what was happening with the company and found out they'd actually gone into liquidation, they'd gone bust. So we'd committed£11 ,000. And, well, you get that sickening feeling in your stomach when you hear something like that. But because we'd paid, you know, obviously part of this on credit card, I thought I'd go and speak to another credit card company and ask about making a Section 75 claim, which they said we could do.

10:30And they sent me a form, which we filled out, and provided them with what they needed, the information that they wanted, and submitted that. And then a few days after that, we got a letter to say that they considered it and rejected. our claim and the reason was because the actual contract value so the the work that was being done was just just under 34 000 pounds so more than 30k um which at the time i didn't realize was it was kind of a cliff edge yes it is it's an absolute hard it's a cliff edge at the start it has to be 100 pounds and a penny and it's a cliff edge at the back end it has to be 30 000 Yeah, so regardless, it was just£11 ,000 that we paid.

11:14I would say just£11 ,000. It was only£11 ,000 that we paid that that didn't matter. They've said that they're not liable, and as far as they're concerned, this case closed. So it was really just about what we can do next. They did say in the letter they sent that they could take this to the ombudsman, so I have actually started a case with the ombudsman which we've picked up, and we're just waiting to find out if they're going to come back and give us some good news on that. But it was really just, is there anything else that we can do? OK, so let me think aloud for a moment with you. I need to manage expectations.

11:52I think it's going to be relatively difficult to get all of that money back from the credit card company. So the first thing is, when we were talking in the previous answer, I was explaining that Section 75 applies if you pay anything on the credit card. as you know, even so, you know, you put£10 on the credit card for a£25 ,000 protection, the credit card company is jointly liable for the entire amount. Unfortunately, it works. That's normally the positive. In your case, it's a negative. You put£11 ,000 on the credit card or whatever it is for a£34 ,000 project, but it's still the project cost, you know, that counts.

12:27It's still the overall. So first things, is this definitely a single transaction? You could dispute with the ombudsman whether this was a single transaction.

12:39I did say in the letter that I sent to the, well, I did follow up and said that I didn't think that it was a single thing because the contract was written in stages, so you had to finish one stage to start the next. Literally, they rejected that within about four hours. Oh, yeah. So let's be really plain. Credit card companies look to reject Section 75. They don't like Section 75. You know, Section 75 has been unchanged since 1974 when it came in. And that 30 ,000 limit's been unchanged since it came in. And the whole point of Section 75 is to say that you should not, if you get a direct debt to buy something specific and something goes wrong with it, you should have extra protection.

13:22Now, some people have lobbied, we need to improve it, we need to break the hole that can sometimes happen with PayPal. I, funnily enough, do not campaign on changing Section 75. because my view is the greatest likelihood if we campaign to change Section 75 is we will just simply lose Section 75. It will no longer exist in the modern world. So I sort of don't get involved in campaigns to change it because I just don't see that happening. But let me be plain. I have seen many, many cases where banks and credit card companies have rejected Section 75 when you're thinking, why have they rejected it or where it's a grey area?

13:56And I would always go on to the ombudsman. And I think the single transaction route is an interesting one, depending on your contract structure, that you could say this was multiple transactions and we put them in different parts. It was not a single transaction. Now, the fact that you go to the ombudsman could make them also more likely to settle. There's a second thing I would look at, which is you have chargeback protection when you pay on plastic as well. and I think the fact that you have not received or an element of the items mean that you could be arguing for a chargeback on the amount you put on the card.

14:29Right, okay. So that's 11 grand from what I remember. It's about five. So we paid pretty much half and half between savings and credit card for those transactions. So I think you've got a stronger chance of getting that back. I would incorporate that into your complaint because they should be saying to you, you can do a chargeback and that they haven't offered you a chargeback even on the£5 ,000. I mean, so there's an interesting, if we're being really honest here, what would you see as a good outcome? Really, all we're asking for was some work has been done and we're very happy to have paid for that.

15:06It's really the unspent part of the deposit that we paid. Which is how much? About just over£7 ,000. Okay. And the unspent part of the deposit, how much of that was on a credit card? that will have been£2 ,500. So if I start at a low point that I would want, being really honest with you, I would want, I'd be looking, I think your best option is to push for£2 ,500 back. Now, there are time limits on the ombudsman. One technique you could go here at this point is you could write to them and say, you have rejected that. I am considering putting in an ombudsman claim for everything. However, alternatively, if you're prepared to settle with a chargeback claim for the two and a half thousand, I will not go towards the ombudsman.

15:53OK. Now, I'm not telling you to do that. This is your decision. I'm not a lawyer. This is not advice. Just caveating here. But you have to work out in your head. You want to push for the whole amount, in which case go to the ombudsman, argue it wasn't a single transaction or or would two and a half grand you sit there and go at this point, I'd take the two and a half. Yes. Yeah. As we're sat here now, I'm thinking that we're just not going to get anything. So, you know, it's just trying to recover anything that we can. So in a way, based on what you're saying, what I would probably do, and there's a lot of grey in this.

16:27So I'm not saying any of this will work. And I'd love you to tell us if it does or doesn't. I would go back to the bank at this point and say exactly what I've said. It's worth noting when I say you're going to the ombudsman, that's because it costs them when you go to the ombudsman. So it's worth noting that. And so I would write back and say, I'm planning to take this to the ombudsman to ask for the entire amount. But I've looked up and there is also an alternative of chargeback where I think under chargeback, there's£2 ,500 I could charge back the credit card deposit for the bit that I did not receive.

16:58If you're prepared to pay me the chargeback, I will see that as a full and final settlement and will not go to the ombudsman. Please let me know within three weeks. Yeah. Yeah. And this is this is not sort of legal advice. This is tactical negotiation where I'd go. No. And then if they don't do that, then you go to the ombudsman. And in the ombudsman, you say you want the whole amount. But if not, they haven't given you the chargeback either. Yeah. And we cross our fingers. OK, that's that's a really good. I hadn't even thought about that avenue. So do you know what chargeback is? Yes. Yes, I have.

17:31I'm a regular listener, so I do. I do hear about all of these different things. so I'd love to hear will you get in touch with Matt when we get through and let's see how we do because it'd be great to follow this up okay I will do that's great good luck mate I hope it goes well for you alright thanks for your help cheers bud

17:50okay Matt what do you have for me next I have a question from Francis hello Francis she's emails hello Martin Francis is a she I wasn't sure it's her email is Miss so I'm assuming yeah it's unless that's her middle name teacher I'm guessing I'm going to say she's a she Francis has emailed you'll like this because she says hello Martin good and Matt in brackets good that which I think is I'd like to say etiquette wise that is the correct format okay hello Martin and Matt should be in brackets I still like hello Matt but that's uh that's by the way anyway she says I'm a science teacher at a state secondary school and I've been tasked to put together a lesson on budgeting for a year 11 cohort.

18:33In doing this, I've been listening to your podcast and learned a lot from you. Oh, that's wonderful. I find that very rewarding. Thank you. Teaching them about mortgages, credit and pensions is part of our job, but trying to get them to think of a few years down the road is hard work. They want to know how to pass their GCSEs and struggle to look beyond that. Some of them are potential entrepreneurs and already interested in making money and have side hustles. Some of our students study GCSE business and we'll be looking at studying economics or business studies next year at A-level. I'd love to give our students an opportunity to ask you questions that are relevant to them now, just as they're on the brink of getting jobs and earning their own money.

19:08Is there somewhere I can point them towards or is there a way of putting together any questions I gather? Well, first thing, Francis, brilliant. I'm a huge fan and campaigner for financial education. So thank you for everything that you're doing. You know, we spend for decades, we have educated our young people into what we call a debt when they go to university, but never educated them about a debt. And it's teachers like you who can change that. And so huge applause from me for what you're doing. I would also say that if you go to the Young Money website, which is part of Young Enterprise, then you can download the free financial education textbook there that I worked on with them and funded all those years ago.

19:46We might have even sent free copies to your school. We sent 365 ,000 copies out there. And there's a teacher's guide too. And that may well be very helpful in doing what you're doing. And as you're doing such a wonderful thing. With the permission of his honourable self, the curator of questions, Matt, how about we get back in touch and we offer Francis's pupils via her three questions that we will do in a question time? I like that. Right? So your pupils, Francis, give us good ones. Maybe give us four or five just in case you know it is a radio programme. We need to make sure it all works. And we will do three Francis's pupils questions in a future question time.

20:24sounds good send them over to the Martin Lewis podcast email and I will curate them make sure you address it dear Martin brackets and Matt maybe I'm if it's dear Matt I'm not doing them I was going to say maybe I'll miss it if it doesn't say dear Matt though okay you won't you won't right so Matt even number it's a caller second caller of the programme I'm not even asking I'm just saying it is am I that predictable yes okay you're not that predictable we have a format we have a format read caller read caller sometimes we throw in a funny question between sometimes we do that after the caller and then maybe depending on time we do one more read that's how it works i mean the people who listen regularly that's not going to be a shock to them no let's do our caller glenn uh glenn's here he's in kingslyn hi glenn hi there you're right hiya glenn did you know the format glenn i'm i think yeah i was yeah i was waiting for it yeah yeah good there you are what's your question mate Well, about three years ago, my wife and I divorced.

21:22At that time, we both had significant unsecured debts, which were all in our own names, with the exception of one joint bank account that had an overdraft. That overdraft is still outstanding at the moment, which we're slowly paying off. But since then, my ex-wife now has entered into an IVA, where I've chosen not to go down that route and slowly pay the debt off. so my question really is could her IVA affect my credit score because uh does her insolvency basically make put an insolvency on my credit score when I'm actually not insolvent myself that makes sense right it it all makes perfect sense so let's just travel through this journey um you have a joint bank account and that will have that does mean that your credit files will be financially linked.

22:16So it's not the fact you were married. You'll know as a regular listener, you'll know I've said before, it's not that you're married that links you. It's a joint bank account. So, you know, you share a flat with someone, you have a joint bills account, you can be financially linked to them. So you are financially linked. If you are financially linked, it means they can, it doesn't mean they will, they can look at her credit situation when they are assessing you. Full stop. So could her IVA affect your credit score or financial reputation? I quite like the phrase financial reputation because credit scores are a loose term.

22:48Yes. So if you were to get a mortgage and you'd sorted your finances, the fact that you are financially linked to someone who is in an IVA, I think there is a reasonable chance that could have an impact on what would happen to you. So the question, of course, is what do you do? Now, you can financially de-link yourself from someone, but that has to be someone you are financially separate from. You are not financially separate because you have a joint bank account. So I don't want to get too personal, and feel free not to answer if anything is getting too personal. Are you and your wife otherwise now totally financially independent of each other?

23:30Yes, it is just this one joint account, yeah. Yeah, so what you could do here is you can talk to your ex about, let's split the debts, take half each, you know, whatever it is, and I will move that and let's close the joint account down. And then you can then apply for financial delinking. Now, I don't know how that possible is. That's a relationship thing between you and her because it is a joint account. You're both liable. But whether I would bother doing that, well, of course, it's worth remembering it's a joint account. If someone were to borrow more, that you would still be liable for it, even if it weren't you who were borrowing it.

24:05that's that is the issue with the joint account so that is worth being you know it's another reason that you might want to do it but also it's it's do you have any important imminent credit applications that are due no like a mortgage no i'm not in a position to to go down that route for one or two years so so there's no so there's i mean it's also sounds to me and again i want to protect your your personal data uh that you you've had debt problems too so your credit score is probably not going to be that high although this isn't the the co-linking isn't going to help it so i think the way i'd phrase it is you don't need to do this now but if you're if you've still got that overdraft and you're linked to someone who's had an iva you will before you start to rehabilitate and get yourself back onto those path whether you're going to want a mortgage or whatever you want to go and do in future you're going to want to close that joint bank account down and financially delink at some point it isn't urgent because you're not doing anything at the moment but it is something that you do need to consider i would think right okay so when the iva does pay off that overdraft that then closes the account and well no you would have to close the account you'd have to close the account so what what what you have to do here is you have to be able to write to the credit reference agencies and you write to all three of them experian equifax and transunion and you will write and say well you mean go and check on your credit it felt that you are financially linked, but you will be financially linked.