Well played Stewart,
I only recieved my letter from ABTA late last week so I am just starting the process, nice to here some good news.
Al

A big to Abbey National, phoned them. they then sent in a letter that I had to sign and send it back and hey presto 10 days latter the money was in my account.

Hi just wanted to share my experience with you and perhaps give hope to some of you who are still waiting to get their money back after the collapse of Freedom Direct.
I booked a holiday to the Canary Islands via Freedom Direct. We were due to go on holiday in August of this year. Our holiday consisted of separate flights, accommodation and taxi transfers.
I contacted Hays Travel when the news of Freedom Direct's failure came through. They advised me my flights and taxi transfers were safe but all monies relating to my accommodation booking had been lost.
I contacted ATOL - they didn't want to know - my holiday hadn't been bonded by Freedom.
I contacted ABTA - ABTA advised me to contact the suppliers direct.
As a result I learned my flights had been cancelled by Freedom the day before they ceased trading and all monies paid back to them. The taxi transfer and accommodation companies advised that they had not received any money from Freedom.
Spoke to ABTA again who advised I should make a claim from my credit card company.
To help with the claim, all suppliers provided me with a statement outlining what had happened with regard to my booking when Freedom ceased trading.
RMT (the administrators) provided me with a letter which confirmed that Freedom had ceased trading and were not in a position to refund any monies to me.
My credit card company refunded everything within a few days of receiving my letter and supporting paperwork. Hays were not very helpful throughout.
Hope this helps others to get their money back if they follow the same root.

hi could you please post the address of the administrators regarding Freedom direct
cant get nothing back till i get in touch with them.
many thanks

Its RMT Newcastle, you will find full address if you google the name.
Hope this helps.

We lost our accomadation and taxi transfers but kept our flights , we have since reclaimed our cash using Visa chargeback we have a Visa electron debit card , i phoned our card provider who put me through to the visa department i explained that FD had gone pop and we had lost money , within one week they sent a form through the post for me to sign , within 2 weeks i had my money back , hope this helps .

had to re pay another £1600.00 ,arrived home still to the stress of getting monies returned, received letters from abta and atol but feel strongly that the companies are still allowed to sell what you think is a package holiday that are not protected under abta and atol even though they are members.
bbc news your money are bringing this loop hole to consumers attention regarding booking holidays you can visit their web site , i also agreed to chat to them which will be shown on sat 20th around 10am.hopefully this is a step forward for regulations to be changed.please please sign the petition at no 10 thanks

Have to say we booked a last min 2 weeks ago and did it ourselves , booked the apartments direct , booked the Flights using Kiss flights and booked the transfers online, saved a lot of cash and all went well .

Hi Everyone & Mickarich,

We are in the same position as you we booked our FD holiday in January of this year and we leave for Turkey in July, we had no correspondence in regards to FD going under I was just lucky I phoned Thomas Cook that who we are flying with.
So I phoned the agent for the hotel company and they told us we would have to go through Hays Travel to rebook the accommodation which I did £1,300.00 later I got a letter from ABTA saying I have to claim my money through my bank I paid with a Visa Debit card and the bank filled out a debit card point of sale form.
Do you think I am doing the right thin here??? Or is there a easer way of getting your money back, Mickarich do you have the phone number you called for your Visa card?

Thanks

Brad

Hi

Just an update to my previous posts.

I have just had confirmation from ABTA that they are processing my accommodation claim and I should receive payment shortly.

For information I paid £1,200 by maestro debit card in January for a holiday in July. Med Hotels would not honour the booking and there was no charge back facitity on my debit card so ABTA were my last resort. I also got my MP and The Judge at the Sunday Mail involved, but I don't really know how much difference their involvement made to the claim, but it may have helped.
I suppose 2 months to get this mess sorted is not too long, but it has at times been very stressful with the constant passing backwards and forwards and never getting a straight answer.

Good luck to everyone else who is still fighting, I am sure everyone will suceed in the end.

Hi Everyone

Just an update to let you know that we got our deposit and rest of payment for our accommodation back from our respective visa debit cards. Hayes rang my husband and asked did we wish to rebook with them !!!!! Lets just say we preferred to order our accommodation elsewhere and our new accommodation is better located, slightly cheaper and more suited to our family circumstances

I hope everyone get their money back, has a brilliant, stress free holiday (if you haven't already gone) and thank you all very much for the posts. They have been invaluable in helping me through this confusing time and they made me feel not so alone when no one was telling me anything.

Bobbyboo x

Hi bfletty i rang my Viste debit card provider ie my bank and they put me through to their Vista department , i told them i want to claim Vista charge back against FD and they did the rest , hope this helps .

Just to update everybody.

I paid my Holiday by Debit card £1900 have just been told by ABTA that my claim has been successful and i will be refunded, they can't tell me when but at least it's coming.

Good luck to everybody else.

The form the bank filled out was called a: Debit Card Point of sale (UK & International) Transaction Query Form - Non Frauduient.

Anyone has had this form filled out and got your money Back??

hi,after reading through everyones comments, i think i must have been very lucky because as i stated in one of my earlier comments i was booked through SOMEWHERE TO STAY , i rang them after i got my 1st e mail from fd/hays & STS assured me that my hotel was safe & that they would make a claim @ abta, the person i spoke to even sent me a letter confiming that the hotel booking was safe, fd/hays told me that they had been in touch with STS & said that my hotel was cancelled, i mentioned this to the lady @ STS & she told me that fd/hays had never ever been in contact & they were talking c--p, as my hols are 2 weeks away my wife rang STS today & everything is ok, i find it hard to believe that f/d took monies from clients when the CAA ordered them not to & why werent the police involved, anyway good luck to everyone thats still waiting.

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you all know I got my money back this week :cheers.

Good luck to you all.

HI Everyone,

Can someone tell me how long it takes to get a refund from ABTA ?

I sent my claim form almost 3 weeks ago - and recieved letter stating not to check on the progress of my claim.

Regards

Kevin

In response to the previous post, I posted my claim to ABTA on 16th May and got a letter from them on 15th June advising that the claim had gone to their accounts dept. The money went in my account a few days after that. So just over a month really.

Just a quick reminder to anyone who book there hols through freedom direct if you booked flights through them you must contact the flight op to confirm your booking , i phoned Hayes travel who took over F/D and they informed me that i had to phone my Flight op (Thomson) or i wouldnt get the flight tickets , be sure to have your ref number when you contact them they will also want a recipt of your payment to F/D .