Purchase protection is typically something you get when you make a purchase with your credit card. How it works is that if you buy something, or even pay for the deposit for something with your credit card and something goes wrong that is out of your hands, you are ‘protected’ and you should, if you have all the appropriate information and proof, be able to claim all of your money back. This applies even if you only put your deposit on your card, the rest of your cash outlay will also be protected!

How does it work with prepay cards?

The above is the case for credit cards, prepay cards are very different.

The bottom line is most don’t offer this at all. However, there are a couple of exceptions. Advanced Payment Solutions (APS) were the first, and for a while only, service provider that offers you something close to purchase protection.

What do APS cards cover?

They say it is ‘in line with Section 75 of the Consumer Credit act’, which is the bit that is about credit card purchase protection, but as they do it voluntarily it’s a bit different. Basically, they only cover the cash you have outlaid (so if you put a deposit for something on your card, they only cover you for that, not the rest of the purchase).

Apart from that, we think it’s fairly similar to credit cards. What cards do they offer? APS offer the following cards:

• Cashplus Gold (one of the UK’s largest)
• Titanium cashplus (sold mainly through the MoneyShop)
• Gap Year cashplus card
• Cordoba gold cashplus
• Sterling card