Last Updated 23rd July 2024. Welcome to our credit card data breach compensation guide. After falling victim to a credit card company data breach, it’s common that you’ll suffer some form of damage as a result. When your personal information is compromised, it could fall into the wrong hands and cause you financial hardship as well as potentially experience mental distress and even financial shortfall.
However, did you know that if your credit card company’s failings were to blame for your data breach, you could be entitled to claim compensation?
This article will guide you through how to make a claim for a credit card company data breach and attempts to address any questions that you may have about the process, such as:
- What data security laws apply to credit card companies to protect my personal information?
- What steps could be taken to address a data breach?
- How much could I be compensated for a data breach?
- How could a No Win No Fee solicitor help my case?
Alternatively, why not save yourself the hassle and have one of our solicitors at Legal Expert handle your case for you instead? To get a free consultation with one of our advisors today, simply use one of the contact options below.
Whether you’re looking for legal advice on your data breach claim or you’d like to begin legal proceedings with one of our solicitors, please get in touch.
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Fill in a contact form
- Use the live chat feature on your screen
Select A Section
- What Is A Credit Card Breach Of Data Protection?
- How Does The UK GDPR Protect My Personal Data?
- How Could I Be Compensated For A Breach Of Financial Data?
- Calculating Credit Card Data Protection Breach Compensation
- How To Claim Compensation For A Breach Of Your Credit Card Data
- No Win No Fee Credit Card Data Protection Breach Compensation Claims
- Begin Your Credit Card Data Protection Breach Claim
- More Links
What Is A Credit Card Breach Of Data Protection?
To begin our guide, we’ll make sure that you’re familiar with some of the definitions that we’ll refer to throughout this article, including what the term data describes and what a data breach could look like.
The term data can be used to describe any sort of personal information that can identify you either directly or indirectly. This could be your name, birth date, address and contact details.
In the context of a credit card company data breach, it’s common for financial details to be compromised, such as your bank account numbers and credit card details in particular. Information about your balance and transaction history could also be at risk.
An incident involving security known as a data breach involves your personal information being interacted with in a manner that you haven’t consented to.
This could be:
- Accessing your data without authorisation.
- Disclosing it to an unauthorised third party.
- Leaking it for anyone to see.
- Destroying it without your knowledge.
A data breach can be accidental or deliberate but having your personal information handled without your consent is always unlawful.
If you’ve suffered a data breach and you’d like to make a claim for the damage that you’ve experienced as a result, please read this guide or contact one of our expert advisors today to see how our solicitors could help.
Data Breach Claim Limitation Periods
If you’re intending to make a credit card company data breach claim, it’s important that you first ensure that you’re familiar with the limitation periods that apply. If not, you could risk losing the compensation that you deserve by attempting to claim outside of the eligibility time limit.
- Generally, claimants have only 6 years within which they could be entitled to make a data breach claim.
- However, for data breach cases involving some sort of human rights breach, claimants have just 1 year within which they can claim before they’re no longer entitled to compensation.
Are you unsure whether you’re eligible to make a data breach claim? If so, then please get in touch with one of our advisors today to receive a free assessment of your case.
Often, victims of a data breach aren’t aware that it’s occurred until they’re formally notified. Companies that suffer data breaches are legally required to inform anyone whose data may have been impacted within 72 hours of discovery.
However, in many cases, a data breach may not be discovered for some time after it happens. In addition, the full extent of the impact on victims isn’t apparent immediately and it could be years before the consequences of a credit card company data breach become clear, so a consultation with our advisors could help you get a better understanding of your circumstances.
How Does The UK GDPR Protect My Personal Data?
As mentioned in the section above, having your personal information handled without your permission, also known as a data breach, is unlawful. In the UK, this rule is set out under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
The UK GDPR aims to encourage proper protection of subjects’ data and holds organisations accountable for not handling personal information appropriately. Some principles established by this legislation include:
- Consent by the subject must be actively given before their data can be interacted with
- Data can only be retained as long as is absolutely necessary
- How and why the subject’s data will be processed must be made transparent to them
- Data must be regularly updated to ensure that it isn’t outdated and incorrect
- Secure systems must be in place to store data safely
If you’re of the belief that you’ve suffered a credit card company data breach because of an organisation’s failings to comply with data privacy and protection laws, please continue reading to see how you could make a claim against them for compensation.
Alternatively, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team at Legal Expert today where one of our advisors can assess your situation free of charge.
How Credit Card Data Could Be Hacked, Stolen Or Breached
There are many ways that credit card data can be compromised. However, as we have already mentioned, your personal data must be affected if you wish to make a claim for data breach compensation.
Some examples of how wrongful conduct on the part of an organisation could lead to a personal data breach include:
- If your bank or credit card provider did not have adequate cybersecurity policies in place, allowing cybercriminals to hack into their systems and steal your personal data
- Your credit card provider sending your bank statement to the wrong email address, despite having your correct email address on file, allowing an unauthorised party access to your personal data
- Your bank sending your new credit card to the wrong postal address, allowing an unauthorised party to access your personal data
These are only a few examples of how a credit card data breach could occur. To find out if you could be eligible for compensation following a personal data breach, contact our team today.
Calculating Credit Card Data Protection Breach Compensation
If you’re wondering how much compensation you could receive for a credit card company data breach claim, this section will explain how payouts are valued for non-material damage and give you some estimated brackets as an idea.
Since the Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc case changed the data breach claims compensation system in 2015, compensation for non-material damage can now be sought, whether or not there was any material damage suffered.
Like personal injury claims, compensation for psychological harm can be valued with reference to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), with some examples seen in the table below:
| Suffering | Severity | Compensation Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Psychological Harm and Financial Damage | Serious | Up to £200,000+ |
| Psychiatric Damage | Severe | £66,920 to £141,240 |
| Psychiatric Damage | Moderately Severe | £23,270 to £66,920 |
| Psychiatric Damage | Moderate | £7,150 to £23,270 |
| Psychiatric Damage | Less Severe | £1,880 to £7,150 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Severe | £73,050 to £122,850 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Moderately Severe | £28,250 to £73,050 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Moderate | £9,980 to £28,250 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Less Severe | £4,820 to £9,980 |
As the table shows, compensation is awarded in accordance with the suffering experienced by the victim.
Compensation For Financial Loss
If your credit card details are stolen, there is a chance that they will be used to make purchases or withdraw cash. Hopefully, your credit card provider will be able to help you reclaim the funds, but this is not always the case.
Credit card data breach compensation can cover material damage, which relates to financial losses stemming from a data breach. As well as lost funds, material damage can include, for example, therapy costs.
To receive compensation for material damage in a credit card data breach claim, it’s worth keeping hold of credit reports, card statements and anything else that highlights how you were affected.
If you’re interested in learning how much compensation you could be entitled to as part of your credit card compensation claim, please speak to one of our advisors today to receive a free consultation.
How To Claim Compensation For A Breach Of Your Credit Card Data
If you believe that an organisation’s failings were responsible for your credit card company data breach, you could be entitled to compensation. In this section, we’ll outline some steps that could be taken in the wake of your data leak.
Firstly, you could reach out to the company responsible for the incident to raise your concerns. We suggest that you detail the damage that they’ve caused you as a result of your data breach, from financial losses to mental anguish. Following this, you may wish to request compensation from them.
Whether they compensate you or not, any response that they do provide could be used against them. If they admit any wrongdoing or accept any blame for your data breach, this could support your claim by evidencing their liability.
If you encounter any difficulties in the wake of your data breach or you’d like some expert advice on how best to proceed, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to see how one of our solicitors could handle your case and help you successfully secure the compensation that you deserve.
No Win No Fee Credit Card Data Protection Breach Compensation Claims
Our solicitors always offer No Win No Fee agreements to alleviate any sense of financial anxiety that clients may be experiencing in the wake of their data breach.
Because of these agreements, our clients don’t have to pay our solicitors a penny if they don’t win their case for them. If they manage to secure them the compensation that they deserve, then clients are expected to pay a ‘success fee’ to account for any legal costs, which is a small percentage of their payout that’s legally-capped to ensure transparency.
To learn more about how a No Win No Fee agreement could work for you, please see our No Win No Fee guide or speak to one of our team today.
Begin Your Credit Card Data Protection Breach Claim
Our solicitors have years of experience winning their clients the compensation that they deserve and have the knowledge needed to successfully navigate the claims process on your behalf. What’s more, they always work on a No Win No Fee basis, so you can rest assured that you don’t have to pay them a penny if they’re unsuccessful in winning compensation.
To receive a free consultation with one of our friendly and knowledgeable advisors, simply use one of the contact options below. Whether you’re looking for legal advice on your data breach claim or you’d like to begin legal proceedings with one of our solicitors, please don’t hesitate to get in touch today.
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Fill in a contact form
- Email info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Use the chat feature at the bottom of your screen
More Links
To bring our credit card company data breach claim guide to a close, we’d like to thank you for reading. If you require any more legal advice, please don’t hesitate to speak to our team at Legal Expert for free support that you can rely on.
Finally, we’d like to end this article by offering you some additional resources that could help your knowledge on credit card company data breach claims and the like.
- Learn about professional negligence claims with our expert advice on making a professional negligence claim.
- Find out more about claim limitation periods with our explanation of time limits that can apply to compensation claims.
- Get advice on No Win No Fee services and how a No Win No Fee agreement could benefit you.
- A detailed breakdown of how you can report a breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
- What information does a company have on me? The government’s official advice on how to make a request about what data a company has on you.
Guide by Mavers
Edited by Billing
