The Rate Tart

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There are more than 1.5 credit cards per British adult - in fact there are 75 million credit cards for 48 million adults. And it's easy to see why.

If you know how to play the game, you can borrow money for no cost (with 0% credit cards), be paid to spend (with cash back credit cards), and borrow for low rates for life (with lifetime balance transfers).

And if that isn't enough, it pays to know your legal rights. For example, if you pay using a debit card and the supplier goes bust before your goods arrive, you have no comeback. But, if you pay by credit card, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 comes to your rescue.

This stipulates that the credit card company must "stand in the shoes of the supplier", and if your goods fail to arrive, are damaged, faulty or don't match their description, you can pursue the credit card company as well as the supplier.

There are limits to this rule: only items costing between £100 and £30,000 are covered, and you must pay for some or all of the goods using a credit card. But even if you used a credit card to put down a £1 deposit on something costing thousands of pounds, you still have the right to persue the card issuer if things go wrong.

This costs card issuers hundreds of millions of pounds a year, and they have been keen to test loop holes in the legislation. The most recent case has been over whether goods bought overseas or from non UK websites fall outside this protection. Law lords last month upheld the Court of Appeals verdict that section 75 in fact does apply to foreign purchases.

Given that we spend approximately £12bn a year on foreign goods and websites, expect to see charges increased by card issuers eager to make back their losses…