What happens to my deposit if a supplier goes bust before delivering?

If you paid even part of the order on a credit card and the order falls between £100 and £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes the card company jointly liable for a full refund. Paid solely by bank transfer or cash, you join the queue of unsecured creditors who usually recover nothing.

Does paying part of an order on a credit card protect the whole amount?

Yes. A partial credit card payment, as little as £1 of the deposit, triggers full Section 75 protection on the entire transaction, provided the total item value is within the qualifying range. You do not need to put the whole order on the card.

How do I check if a building supplier is about to go under?

Search the company on Companies House for late or overdue accounts and use the free Follow feature for instant filing alerts. Watch for slipping delivery dates, unsolicited offers to delay your order, communication dropping off, and negative reviews appearing online.

Will I get my money back from a supplier's insolvency administrator?

Rarely. In the vast majority of liquidations, unsecured creditors receive nothing, with a median recovery of zero. Filing a Proof of Debt costs nothing and is worth doing, but Section 75 is your real recovery route, not the insolvency process.

Is a debit card chargeback as good as Section 75?

No. Chargeback is a voluntary card-network scheme rather than a statutory right, your bank can refuse it, and the time limit is short. For building products with long lead times you can pass the chargeback window before you even realise the supplier is in trouble.

Is a long supplier guarantee worth anything if the company collapses?

Only if it is insurance-backed. An ordinary guarantee is just the company's own promise and dies with the company, so a 10-year guarantee from a firm that fails in year three is worthless. An insurance-backed guarantee is underwritten by a third party and still pays out.

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Phase 2 · Pre-Construction · Task 09 of 13

What to Do When a Supplier Goes Bust

Construction suppliers fail at record rates. Learn how Section 75 credit card protection recovers your money, how to spot warning signs, and what to do when a supplier goes into insolvency.

10 min readUpdated 2026Premium

Decision flowchart showing recovery routes when a building supplier goes bust, branching by payment method from credit card to debit card to bank transfer

Prerequisites

Complete these first

A £200 credit card payment on a £10,300 order. That was the difference between getting every penny back and joining a queue of unsecured creditors who, statistically, receive nothing. The bifold door company had been trading for years. Looked legitimate. Took the deposit, took the progress payments, kept reassuring. Then one day the premises were empty and a letter arrived from an insolvency practitioner.

This happens more often than you think. Construction had the highest insolvency rate of any UK sector in 2024, with over 4,000 companies going under. Smaller specialist fabricators (bifold doors, windows, bespoke kitchens, roof lanterns) are the most vulnerable because they carry high material costs, long lead times, and thin margins. You're paying thousands of pounds months before you see a product. That's the risk.

The good news: there's a legal mechanism that makes your credit card company jointly liable with the supplier. It works. But only if you've set it up before things go wrong.

What this guide covers

01The One Rule That Matters
02Before You Place a Large Order
03Warning Signs Your Supplier Is in Trouble
04When You Suspect a Problem
05When the Supplier Formally Goes Under
06Section 75 vs Chargeback vs Proof of Debt
07Consequential Losses: Claiming the Price Difference
08Debit Card Chargeback
09Checking Insolvency Status
10Finding a Replacement Supplier
11Warranties Are Only as Good as the Company
12The Real Cost of Supplier Failure

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