They say that failing to prepare is preparing to fail, so by planning a wedding budget from the get-go, you’ll save you plenty of heartache further down the line.

5 Top Tips When Planning A Wedding Budget

Taking out wedding insurance will help cover your big day preparation should disaster happen, but there are also some other, less-known strategies that you should be aware of. Julia Kukiewicz, consumer choice expert from Max out on consumer protection…

The way you spend makes a difference to the amount of consumer protection you’ll be entitled to. Use a credit card to pay, for example, and your credit card provider must protect any purchase between £100 and £30,000.

This is due to section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. If a retailer goes bust, if your goods are faulty or they’re not delivered, your credit card provider must refund you in full.

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Debit card users or credit card purchases under £100 are also protected in a similar way. This comes under the Weddings are expensive. Fact. Get savvy when planning a wedding budget with our 5 essential tips to help make the most of your big day!

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Don’t max out your credit card

wedding budget.

counting coins wedding budget

Exceptions to the rule

All these forms of consumer protection are great options when planning a wedding budget. Be aware though, that just like an insurance policy they come small print that you should be aware of. Section 75, for example, is an extremely complex piece of legislation.
To demonstrate, let’s look at one big loophole in Section 75 protection – Third party suppliers. If you pay on your credit card, but through a third party supplier such as PayPal, Google Checkout or Amazon Marketplace your purchases won’t be protected. That’s because the law states, in order for the credit card provider to be equally liable for supplying your goods or services, they and the retailer must have a direct relationship. Third parties disrupt that relationship and the result is that the purchaser (you) isn’t protected!

Similarly, chargeback schemes come with their own specific rules that govern when consumers can make a claim. Visa, for example requires consumers to submit a claim within 120 days of them having become aware of a problem with a purchase. This increases to 180 days if the purchase was made abroad. Choose.net have written a Know your statutory rights

Don’t forget all this extra protection comes on top of the standard Sale of Goods Act 1979. This says goods must be:

  • Of satisfactory quality
  • Be as they were described
  • Be fit for purpose and
  • Last a reasonable length of time

There’s a lot of confusing words in there – What’s satisfactory? What’s reasonable?. Use them as guidelines when making a complaint to a retailer about a fault. Hopefully, most retailers will be able to resolve a dispute without you even having to resort to making a claim.

Don’t forget the honeymoon

5-essential-things-planning-a-wedding-budget-atol-logoFinally, remember when planning a wedding budget that there’s now extra consumer protection for holidays/honeymoons under the

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