Friday, March 29

Coronavirus Travel Rights


If you do want to push for cash or you’re struggling to get any refund, here’s what we’d suggest, but there are no hard and fast rules:

1) Insist on a refund in writing. Firms will naturally want to push you to accept a voucher or rebook your holiday, as it avoids them having to cough up. So make it clear, in writing, that you expect a refund. Sadly, pushy customers tend to be more successful than those who just leave it, though be firm and polite rather than rude and aggressive. It’s also worth quoting what the CMA has said in cases about refunds in this situation.

2) Try going to your card firm and asking it for a refund (ask for chargeback first, then try Section 75 if that doesn’t work). Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, if you pay for something costing between £100 and £30,000 on a credit card, the card firm’s equally liable if something goes wrong, so you may be able to claim your money back from it.

Under chargeback, which isn’t a legal requirement, just a customer service promise, your bank will try to get money back from the bank of the firm you bought from, and you can try it on debit card purchases and those which are less than £100. See our Section 75 and Chargeback guides for full info.

As MSE founder Martin Lewis explains though, try chargeback first. Here, Martin explains why: “Even if you actually have a credit card and qualify for Section 75, I wouldn’t ask for that at this stage. I would ask for a chargeback. That’s because under the chargeback process, which is part of the Visa, Mastercard or Amex rules, your bank is asking for money back from the holiday firm’s bank, which your bank is unlikely to have an issue doing.

“If you claim under Section 75 though, then you are asking the credit card company itself to cover you, and while it may be legally obliged to do this, it is likely to be much more reticent to do it. So it’s worth trying Section 75 only if chargeback fails. And with both, if you are rejected you have the right to go on to the free Financial Ombudsman, which can adjudicate.”

There’s no guarantee this will work, but some who’ve struggled to get other travel refunds, eg, for Ryanair flights, have had joy this way. Do be aware that even once you’re paid the money with chargeback, the firm can dispute it with the bank and the money may later be clawed back. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. See chargeback clawback help if it does.

3) If you are prepared to play hardball, threaten court action. This is the route a very senior, and often litigious, lawyer told us he would take if it happened to him. This is about writing a formal note that you plan to file a county court claim if it doesn’t pay a refund. Keep it short and sweet, with just the basic information about what’s happened, and state a time (say, three weeks later) when you expect a response or you’ll go ahead.

Think carefully about whether you want to do this and how hard to push. Consumer lawyer Dean Dunham previously drafted two template letters for Sykes Cottages customers, and we saw some report that they’d successfully used them to get a refund. Of course, these should no longer be necessary for Sykes Cottages customers as it’s now committed to provide full refunds, but they could give you a sense of what this type of letter could look like if you want to write to another firm. (Some details will be specific to Sykes, so should be treated as inspiration rather than as direct templates.)

4) File a county court claim online. This is following up on your promise to go to court – and again, it’s what our senior lawyer says they’d do, but of course everyone is different. Essentially, it will hopefully go through the small claims route – a low-hassle online process for simple cases where you can represent yourself – though it will take some time, and it does depend on how good you are at this type of thing. This can be objected to by the other side though, and be pushed up to a district court, where you may need legal representation.

There is a cost for doing this – it’s £25 to £300, and it’s refunded if you win. If you lose, there are no costs against you in the small claims court, but there may be if it goes up to a higher court (you’ll know beforehand though and could drop the case then). See our Small Claims Court guide for full help.

Let us know how you get on at [email protected].





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