Hi,
Your holiday must be quite expensive if you are paying 2.5% or so in CC fees which evaluate to £130, with this in mind i would pay by credit card, if your holiday was of small value and you had to add £130 then it may make the holiday cost ridiculous but for a holiday of that expense i would give yourself total cover and piece of mind by paying by credit card. In this financial climate the more protection the better.

Where are you going and when?

regards
Iain

beaches Negril for Easter and yes, nearly 7K..
thanks for the advice

Sounds lovely and at a great time of the year, i always feel Easter is a special time to go on a holiday.

We're off next week on the Oceana down to Spain and Madeira and so on so lets hope the Bay of Biscay behaves!!

Have an excellent holiday.

Iain

If you have already paid your deposit by credit card then you should ok to pay the balance by debit card. I think the rules say you have to pay £100 on credit card to get the protection.

yes deposit was credit card, thanks for the insight

No probs - there is another post about this subject here http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=126631

Hi,

I have spoken within the business environment over the last couple of days about this subject and the general consensus is that you would only get back what you paid on your credit card not the full cost of the holiday. They also believe that if the credit card company accept your deposit then you are insured for the full amount of the holiday but the credit card companies insurance may have clauses that will stop them from paying out in full in certain situations.

It's a confusing matter that needs clarity because we feel if you paid the full amount on your credit card then if the holiday wasn't supplied to you for whatever reason then you can initiate a CHARGEBACK for the full amount and you will almost certainly get the full 7K back

I'm not trying to win any points here but as a consumer and as a business owner i would like clarity on this subject but i certainly wouldn't want Rachie-m (the original poster) to lose out if something does go wrong.

I found the link to the consumer company not that informative so i shall investigate further. It's the same as saying ABTA and ATOL covers you for everything when a holiday company goes bust when in matter of fact this isn't entirely true and people have purchased a holiday with the impression that they are 100% covered.

I know that the company that the Rachie-m has booked through is very unlikely to go bust but it will be interesting to know anyway exactly the terms on this deposit issue.

I shall speak to my solicitor about it and reply here later.

Iain

Further to my response above, it does look like the credit card company is as liable as the supplier, see below which was taken from the Financial Ombudsman

Where customers use a credit card to buy airline or other travel tickets from a travel agent, they cannot normally claim against the travel agent if the airline delays or cancels the flight. This is because the travel agent contracted to supply the ticket, not the flight. So the customer would not have a claim under section 75 either.

However, things are different if customers use a credit card to buy the travel agent's own ‘package' of travel arrangements. In such instances the agent is the supplier of the holiday package.

Section 75 does not, in itself, provide grounds for a claim against a supplier. Customers must have a valid claim of breach of contract or misrepresentation under other law, such as the Sale of Goods Act or the Misrepresentation Act. If they do, then they have a like claim against the card provider for the full amount of the claim.

The claim is not limited to the amount of the credit card transaction. Customers can claim for all losses caused by the breach of contract or misrepresentation. And this applies even if all they paid by credit card was the deposit.

So, for example, a customer who pays a deposit for goods - using a credit card issued by firm A - and then pays the balance using firm B's card, has the choice of claiming for the cost of goods and any consequental losses against:
1. the supplier of the goods
2. firm A
3. firm B
or all three.
But of course, the customer cannot recover the same money twice.

© Financial Ombudsman Service Limited, September 2003
____________________

So it looks like it depends on what package you buy, quite an interesting read.

Iain

Very interesting.

Especially the phrase "all losses caused by the breach of contract" . So would that include wasted prepaid airport parking, night-before-hotels, insurance premiums etc if they were losses caused by the holiday being cancelled??

that's interesting, thanks for the update

Travelcare is an ABTA member and Virgin Holidays holds both ABTA and ATOL membership. Your money paid, in what ever form, to either would be safe.

another point is are they a safe company to deal with.. As a member of the co-operative society i would think travelcare would be as safe as you can get

wiz

It is quite simple really.

When you claim against the CC supplier you actually transfer your entitlement to them. They reimburse you and in turn will claim back from the defaulting supplier. Because of the financial standing/size of the cc company they are better able to recover the money.

I and others have in the past said any fee should be looked at as insurance. Even if you paid the full amount at time of booking there is no reason why you should not pay part by cc and the balance by any other means you wish. The important thing is the portion paid by cc gives you the protection for the full amount.

fwh

Rachel,I booked my last holiday from which I have just returned at Thomas Cook and when they mentioned the 2.50%credit card my husband said just forget it!However the travel agent advised us to get a Thomas Cook credit card and we wouldnt have to pay any charges.You also get money off your next holiday instead of points like other credit cards.You can book any holiday at Thomas Cook agents and my next holiday is a hotel exclusive to First choice and Thomson but I can book it at Thomas Cook.The first 3 months is interest free so you dont have to pay off the total amount of your holiday to avoid interest charges.
It certainly save you some money and as your holiday in 7K you would get about £140 off your next holiday!

Yes, I have just got one of their credit cards too. I pay £300 per month towards holiday on it and then pay the card off in full whenever I get paid. We will 'earn' £60, which we will use for pesos. You can use it for any holiday that the TC shop sells. Seems a good idea.

Denny