The Payment Systems Regulator has introduced new rules, which apply to all UK banks, for reimbursing certain types of fraud.
What do the new rules cover?
The new rules introduce mandatory requirements for all banks on refunding eligible Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud losses. APP fraud is when someone fraudulently tricks you into making a payment.
What do the new rules do?
- Banks have to refund eligible fraud claims up to a maximum of £85,000
- Banks can set an excess of up to £100 per fraud claim for the customer to pay. TSB won't apply this excess
- If your claim is approved, the bank will put your money back in your account within 5 business days
What don’t the new rules cover?
- Purchase disputes and other transactions made using your debit or credit card
- Payments that aren't Faster Payments or CHAPS, for example international payments, cash withdrawals, loans, and cheques
- Fraud cases that are more than 13 months old at the time you report it
- If you’re involved in committing the fraud
- Gross negligence. The Consumer Standard of Caution below gives more details on how you can protect yourself
- Payments made to another account you control, or payments that aren’t authorised by you
- Payments that are sent or received by credit unions, municipal banks and national savings banks
- Private or civil disputes
How TSB will deal with fraud from 7 October 2024
Our priority remains to support and protect innocent victims of fraud. Here's what we're doing around the new UK Fraud rules from 7 October 2024:
Refunds under the new rules
- We'll refund eligible claims under the new fraud rules
- We won't apply the £100 excess on claims where we refund
- If your claim is approved, we'll put your money back in your account within 5 business days
The new rules rely on the customer showing caution when it comes to banking and payments. This approach is called the Consumer Standard of Caution, which boils down to these common sense measures:
- Paying attention to any warnings or guidance shown by the bank or building society
- Quickly reporting the fraud to their bank
- Sharing any information necessary for the fraud claim investigation
- Reporting the fraud to the police or allowing the bank to report it on their behalf
We’ll take into account the customer’s personal circumstances at the time the fraudulent payment was made. We do not repay losses if the customer is involved in committing the fraud.
For more information on the Consumer Standard of Caution, visit the Payments Systems Regulator website.
Refunds for fraud not covered by the new rules
- If a TSB customer experiences a type of fraud that's not covered by the new refund requirements, we'll review each claim on a case-by-case basis.
- We'll take into account whether you've complied with the new Consumer Standard of Caution and also other factors in deciding whether a full refund, partial refund or other action is appropriate (such as additional guidance to help you avoid future losses, or to point you in the right direction if you have a purchase dispute) for the circumstances of your claim.
We’ll take into account the customer’s personal circumstances at the time the fraudulent payment was made. We do not repay losses if the customer is involved in committing the fraud.
What does this mean for you?
The Fraud Refund Guarantee will still apply to eligible fraud transactions that happened before midnight 6 October. From 7 October the new fraud rules apply and we’ll review all other types of fraud claims on a case-by-case basis.
Problems with something bought by card?
If you buy something with a TSB debit or credit card and have been misled by the seller, or the item wasn't delivered, or it's faulty, then it could be a dispute.
How do I report fraud?
If you think you’ve been scammed, you can report it to us by app, call or branch. We’ll investigate your fraud claim so we can decide whether we can offer you a full or partial refund or how we can best support you, such as additional guidance to help you avoid repeat situations.
How to protect your money
Check out our 5-step security check on how best to keep yourself safe from fraudsters.
How to recognise fraud
We've pulled together the information you need to help you spot the key signs that something's not right and might be fraud.
Any questions?
The TSB Fraud Refund Guarantee applies for payment fraud transactions on your TSB account during the period of 14 April 2019 until midnight on 6 October 2024. You cannot claim for transactions after 6 October 2024.
- As you'd expect, we will not repay losses where customers are involved in committing the fraud.
- Customers will not be refunded where they have abused the guarantee, for example by making a payment despite suspecting it to be a scam, by not following account safety information, and/or by making repeated claims under the guarantee.
- The guarantee doesn't cover purchase disputes, where you pay for something with your TSB account and the goods or services don't meet your expectations. This could be if the item arrives differently to how it was described. If you feel you've been misled by the seller you may be able to claim under the chargeback rules or the Consumer Credit Act, if you used a debit card or credit card.
- The guarantee covers authorised and unauthorised transactions for claims meeting the criteria. For authorised transactions the guarantee is limited to £1 million per claim.
- TSB customers will need to contact us to report fraud by calling the number on the back of their card. Alternatively, customers can call 0800 023 4113 (credit and debit card related fraud) or 0800 096 8669 (internet, mobile, or phone related fraud).
Then what happens?
- We will quickly investigate the fraud claim, to make sure that we understand how it's happened so that we can give you safety advice to make sure you're not affected by fraud again. We may also need to help you to reset your login details or other account information.
- Once we've assessed your claim, we'll let you know the outcome. If the claim is approved for a refund, we’ll refund your account as quickly as possible.
If you’re not happy with how we’ve dealt with your case, you have the right to make a complaint. If you’re still not happy, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman.
- We look for what happened and how it happened, so we can give you advice to protect you from future fraud.
- We know how important it is to pursue fraudsters. And we use our investigations to gather the evidence needed to prosecute the criminals behind fraud attacks.
Individuals, microenterprises (enterprises that employs fewer than ten persons and have either an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total that does not exceed €2 million), or charities (a body whose annual income is less than £1 million per year and is a charity as defined by the Charities Act 2011, Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 or the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008).
Authorised push payment (APP) scams rankings in 2023
Authorised push payment (APP) scams happen when someone is tricked into transferring money to a fraudster’s bank account.
These charts use data given to the Payment Systems Regulator by major banking groups in the UK in 2023.
You can read the full report by visiting www.psr.org.uk/app-fraud-data
Share of APP scams refunded
This is the proportion of total APP fraud losses that were reimbursed, ranked out of 14 firms.
APP scams received per £million transactions: smaller UK banks and payment firms
This is the amount of money received into the scammer’s account from the victim, ranked out of all UK banks and payment firms.
For example, for every £1 million received into consumer accounts at Skrill, £18,550 of it was APP scams.
APP fraud sent per £million transactions
This is the amount of money sent from the victim’s account to the scammer, ranked out of 14 firms.
For example, for every £1 million of TSB transactions sent in 2023, £266 was lost to APP scams.
APP scams received per £million transactions: major UK banks and building societies
This is the amount of money received into the scammer’s account from the victim, ranked out of all UK banks and payment firms.
For example, for every £1 million received into consumer accounts at TSB, £408 of it was APP scams.
