Question. How did you pay? Cash/Cheque/Debit Card/Credit Card ?

You will not be able to claim compensation.

If you paid by Credit Card or made payment towards the holiday on it of at least £100 then contact your card company. Might be that they will reimburse you sooner than ATOL. Any monies recovered from ATOL would need to be repaid to the CC company.

I assume you comment re insurance is because you took it out with Dedicated Holidays. I would check with the insurer as they may have made payment to them.

fwh

I think i paid the deposit of £540 on debit card and the balance on credit card. When i spoke to ATOl they were unsure of how i would be paid back as the payments are shown as D2 travel - dedicated holidays was apparnetly part of them?

have tried to look into the insurance side - phoned the claim line number but they said that it was for claims only and i would have to get in touch with the insurers but they didn't know who they were. only that the underwriters were uk underwriting.

This may be of help. Check that you did use your credit card and ring them ASAP if you did. You have protection if you have done so. It does not apply to debit cards. Several members do know quite a bit about it and no doubt when they read your post they will be able to explain it.

Meantime enjoy the holiday you have booked to replace it

fwh

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Hi you will get a full refund but no you cant claim compensation. There is no one left to claim compenstaion off.

Re insurance, this is a policy that is in place from the time you made the booking so if something had happened you would have been covered. For future arrange your own insurance which is usually cheaper and easy to do online. If you holiday more than once a year consider a year round policy.

Kind Regards
Stewart

Little to add to the informative comments already offered by fwh and stewartwilkie other than to explain that Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act is the relevant legislation that covers you for credit card spends of between £100 and £30,000.

It is my understanding that even if you chose to pay, say £101 by credit card for a deposit on a holiday, and the remaining balance (in full) or even the remaining deposit due (if deposit is, say, £200) via any other method, you are still covered for your total expenditure. For this reason I always pay deposits by credit card but final balances by debit (to avoid the credit card surcharge often levied).

To claim under section 75 there must be a failure in some respect with the service/product provided or a breach of contract. Going bust definately counts.

A credit card company cannot claim to cover only UK purchases - a recent court case found the cr. card company is also liable for overseas spend on a British registered card.

There is a complication with regard to travel agents where a cr. card is used to pay the agent you are dealing with, but another party is involved in receiving money from the agent - I'm sorry I cannot provide more clarification on that point - I found it difficult to understand the subtlety when I last read that section.However, this opt-out rarely applies.

Re. the insurance - assuming the premium has been paid at time of deposit and the policy is in force you'll not be able to recover those costs but why not seek claiming off that policy for cancellation at a late stage. Check this out with ATOL as well as "subrogation" (claiming from two sources) may mean that any money receovered from your policy simply reduces ATOL's repayment amount - and you might also loose an excess. But it's worth checking.

Mike

I am in the same boat.... my holiday company ceased trading 6 days prior to travel... it does take time and I was told that insurance would be covered - but bizarrely the insurance company will have to pay it and in the end wasn't worth my while claiming that as was going to cost more in administration... C

Hi Everyone

Have calmed since my last posts and managed to get some answers. We also still managed to go on a last minute holiday by borrow some money, as we were packed and booked the time off work - just ended going a day late and on night flights - but the break was deffiantly needed amd enjoyed esp by the kids.

Managed to find out that the insurance company was Voyager Insurance Services and that i could have swoped my insurance to my new holiday - however i did not know this until we got back from the new as they are closed on a sat and sunday - so ended up paying out twice for insurance but did not want to risk going without any!

They also said that they will not be paying any money back in regards to cancelled dedciated holidays as they were owed 2 months worth of premiums! I've also re-read there insurance document and it states in General Exclusions that: You are not covered for claims arising out of the bankruptcy or insolvency of a tour opperator, travel agent etc.

Have also sent off my claims form to ATOL so hopefully we will get something back

thx

faith

Again we go back to the method of payment. How much of the TOTAL including insurance did you pay by credit card?

If it was in excess of £100 get onto them. It may be that you have to sign over to them any monies you recover from ATOL but you should not finish up out of pocket.

fwh

it states in General Exclusions that: You are not covered for claims arising out of the bankruptcy or insolvency of a tour opperator, travel agent etc.

and

as they were owed 2 months worth of premiums

This seems to me to be an "unfair clause". You have no control over how the premiums are passed from company to company - only over your premium paid in good faith to your insurance company.

If fwh's ideas about the credit card use don't solve your problems take up the issue with your insurer again and if needs be check the acceptability of their stance with your local Trading Standards office.