You're not being dumb, the card company will only cover you for the amount that passes through the card account - so if you now pay off everything on the credit card they won't cover you for the deposit paid on the debit card. The £100 is a threshold set to stop things getting overly complicated by millions of complaints over low value goods that didn't work. The logic behind the law is that the supplier of the goods/services sells them outright to the credit card company who then resells them to you through a credit agreement- so they have a contract to supply even if the original supplier has disappeared. The UK law doesn't give the same protection to debit cards because in that case the card company is just a way of transferring funds from you to the supplier BUT if it is a Visa backed card then Visa's own regulations gives you some extra protection in some circumstances. The requirement to give cover is why credit card charges are usually higher than debit card - you are effectively paying an insurance fee so the people who pay the fee and have no problem cover the costs of those who need a refund!

Destinology have ATOL cover according to their T&Cs, see clause 19. So as long as that is true you shouldn't have a problem anyway.

I was under the impression that even if a small payment was made by credit card, as long as the total value of the purchase was over £100 then the whole amount could be claimed back from the credit card company. The following thread from MSE seems to support this.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1096505

Can anyone clarify this?

I agree that in principle it implies that even if you paid only £1.00 you could be covered, but as with all good things I suspect if everyone started to do so and claiming there would quickly be a move to change what is in effect a loophole. We might find that a fee was charged every time we used our card.I always look on it as insurance.

Credit card companies are in fact always willing to help where they can in my experience.

Personally I think the message needs to get over to people that the small fee you have to pay is money well spent when making large purchases. The many tales of woe that have been posted here on HT by those who have opted for the debit card rather than pay the fee testify to that.

As a point of interest I had to claim back earlier this year when the TO I had booked with went bust and I was refunded the fee as well.

fwh

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that you need to pay a minimum of £100 on your credit card to be able to claim back.

luci