i would ring and ask when the deposit needs to be paid, otherwise they may cancell your holiday.
better to be safe than sorry.

That would be unfair if its in writting.

This happened to me last year with Portand on-line. I booked well in advance and paid a low deposit, with the balance of the deposit being due on 31st Jan. But they never asked me for it, I forgot and ended up paying it all 10 weeks before (or whatever the industry standard is).

If you cancel or amend for any reason it will be brought to their attention and you will be required to pay the balance of the deposit at that point.

You cannot cancel and only lose the very low deposit, which seems fair enough to me anyway and is in all company's terms and conditions.

You did book on the understanding that you would pay the rest of the deposit by a certain time. Therefore, if they are happy to waive that I would definitely get that in writing and not over the phone.

Thanks for that doepsmc.
Does anyone know if they could cancell the holiday as that is the last thing i want but then again as i have the confirmation i dont see how they could ?

As i said i have three copies of the confirmation all of which were posted out to me and all of them state the balance due is ** July.

Fiona I was under the immpression the remainder of the deposit was to be paid aprox 4wks after booking and then another payment pp four wks after that but no dates were given and she didnt even tell me the 2nd amount due. I presumed as i said that the brakedown and the dates due would be on my invoice.

I'm no legal expert, but I would think it unlikely they would cancel you, as you have documentary evidence in triplicate saying you have booked the holiday and at the end of the day you have paid some monies towards it.

If it is one of the big players like Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook I think you will be fine.

What I would say though is if you are going to spend the next 8 months worrying about it, it might be best paying anyway for your own peace of mind.

In my case I think I paid 100 pounds and the deposit should have been 450 pounds, this was for a family of four.

Doe

You had a verbal agreement with them, why don't you check with them ?

If there has been some sort of error with the confirmation invoices, I dont think I would take the chance of them cancelling if you didn't pay.

I suppose it depends on how much you want the holiday.

Kath x

Thanks everyone. It is with one of the big ones and i will ring to check as the last thing i want is to loose our holiday.
I just wanted to know if their confirmation would be legally binding ?

I would take the safest way out and contact them and ask if you can pay the balance of your deposit before the July date. If you do not they may cancel then refer you to the brochure where the low deposit balance usually is paid four weeks after the initial booking is made.

Like Chris (Doe) I also booked last year and again this year with portland , paid the low deposit and told you owe x amount in so many weeks time. they never asked for it last year and i didnt pay it until the final balance and the same this year so far i have still only paid the low deposit. in fact i changed our booking this year well after the time had passed to pay the deposit balance and added another person to it , paid another low deposit and they still didnt ask for the remaining deposit balance which i thought they would at that point, I just received another new invoice saying the remaining deposit due as "now" and the balance due the usual 8 weeks prior to departure but nothing to say it being overdue .

As chris says if your booking is with portland/thomson or another of the big players I very much doubt they would cancel your booking over the deposit balance they would write to you first. but as pointed out if you cancel you would be expected to come up with the full dposit . If you phone them to check they will of course say that it is due and as chris says piece of mind may be better

lyn

Hi Lyn

How was Salzburg? I've been twice. It's beautiful isn't it? Did you walk across the famous bridge over the river?

I am begining to think Portlands Low Deposit offer is a 'genuine' one now, or a least more genuine than others. So many people seem not to be asked to pay the interim deposit.

I can't beleive that Portland keep overlooking this, perhaps we weren't meant to pay until the end? The only other thing I can think of is it's a glitch on their web-site (and if we keep talking about it on here someone will probably put a stop to it. )

Chris

Hi chris . We had a wonderful weekend. I have done a little piece about it in the city breaks forum What a beautiful ,chilled out city .

Idont really know what to make of portlands low deposit . It cant be an internet thing as i have booked both of mine over the telephone after having problems with their on-line system when it wouldnt take my payment at that stage .I still got the internet discount tho I dont think they can be really bothered once they have your booking as long as they get the money in the end. if I remember rightly when i booked im sure the lady on the phone did tel me that i would need to remember myself when to pay the rest but as we say they dont seem particularly bothered if we dont. having rang and amended my booking surely the system should of flaged up that i still owed the deposit balance and at the very least took full deposit for my sons girlfriend whom we added. but no nothing mentioned. so that was good enough for me . I fully expected them to ask for it at that stage

lyn

hi lyn

glad you had a good time, its about 20 year since ive been there but remember it being lovely

i booked a bargain hol for oct with portland about 2 wks ago paid £30pp low dep online it said rest of dep to be paid 6 wks later, anyway when my invoice came a few days ago it said total balance to be paid --aug and nothing mentioning rest of the dep to be paid earlier therefore im going to pay the rest in aug, what a bargain thought they were going to write and tell me it was a mistake my mother has been today and had a look, she text and said it looks lovely and painters are there lol, she explained where abouts in icmeler it was and i know so im well pleased £104 each for flights, trans and 1 bed apt wahoooooooooooooooooo

karen

Got caught in the "confused" box with eclipsedirect in 2005. I booked the holiday online and it bypassed the low deposit wording but only took a low deposit.
I then got a statement saying I had to pay the rest of in bulk so many weeks before the departure date.
When my daughter was researching the holiday an agent told her that the rest of the deposit had to be paid within so many weeks and she kept on at me as she didn't want to lose her holiday.
To keep her quiet I contacted the Customer Services who told me that I had to pay the rest of the deposit after 4 weeks or I would lose the holiday and no they wouldn't be sending me a reminder!

I highlighted the various issues involved but as we had a good holiday at a very good price I paid the rest of the deposits when we thought we had to just in case.
I was never sure what the situation was and did not have faith in the accuracy of the Customer Services rep, but wanted a hassle free holiday and so did not push the issue.
Never at any point was low deposit or any deposit "required" payment date mentioned on the documents other than the preprinted disclaimers in the small print. And we never received any reminders.

I suppose, judging by these posts, that for peace of mind, and if you can afford to, then pay the full deposit on booking.

We normally book through Travelcare and pay a low deposit with the full deposit being paid 4 weeks later. The contract we sign says that if the full deposit isn't paid by the due date then we loose all our discounts, to be honest i've never risked it!! I suppose it depends on how much discount you have received.
T.C.

When we booked with Portland under the low deposit scheme ,we were told the date that the remainder of the deposit was to be paid. The girl also said that there would be no written reminder. So I flagged it up on the calendar and paid it on the due date. I'm surprised to read that they don't chase you up if you haven't paid it, instead adding it to the final invoice. If they haven't sussed it by next year, I think I will do as you guys

We booked with Portland on-line with the low deposit and then received an invoice telling us when the total balance was due with no other date for any further deposit.

I have also now changed our booking and added two more people on and the girl on the phone didn't even want the 2 new low deposits or the amount for changing our destination. She said we could pay it later and to check that we were happy with the invoice when it arrives. I asked twice if she wanted the new deposits etc and she said it was fine.