i put each family name as there own booking with my address for contact so the contract was in effect direct with each family ,I did the bookings on their behalf and paid their deposits.

I'm a little confused about this - perhaps you can clarify?

1) Was this booking made 'over-the-counter' at a travel agents, by phone, or via website?

2) Who actually signed/authorised payment of the deposits?

3) Apart from the names on the booking form, what has been the form of the contact between the other families and the agent?

My reading of your opening paragraph is that the contract is with you - you made the booking, you gave your home address as the contact point and you paid the deposit. Otherwise, anybody could put somebody else's name down on a booking and not be held accountable for it.

My advice would be to check the full details and small print of the T&Cs because it is common for TAs and TOs to say that unless the balance is paid in full by the due date that balances will be taken from the same card as paid the deposit. Likewise hire car companies and hotels will take a card number and debit the balance - unless you agree to this they often won't accept the booking in the first place.

One final point - assuming that this is the final balance that has been taken - could you not simply ask the family concerned to re-imburse you? Or have they already paid the balance direct to First Choice? Or have they in effect cancelled by not paying the balance?

SM

1 it was made over the phone

2 It was i who made the booking on behalf on the parties concerned and paid the deposits and i made clear at the time of the booking and gave authorisation for the deposits only and that i was not responsible for the other parties bookings ( which was confirmed by First Choice call centre on review of there tapes)
The only documentation i have recieved from First Choice was just invoices in the name of the parties and covering letters confirming the Booking

I also have had confirmation from First Choice that their Company proceedure was not completed and i was not informed that no further monies relating to other parties or my own would be taken out of my account without authorisation.

On the first occasion this happend within 7 days of the booking where they took out a sum of money regarding Insurance this was not highlighted until i recieved the Booking confirmation were insurance had been added and they confirmed to me that they had not followed their company proceedure then and had not notified me of this, they apologised and reimbursed the insurance payments . we had confirmed our own insurance and they would send correct invoices for payment . ( Never Recieved ).
at the time of this exchange I clarified to them that I would not take responsibility for payments against other parties invoices and they confirmed again that this is okay.

On the second occasion I recieved letters confirming payment was now due and that i had 7 days to complete the transaction / Not a problem so i got all the parties to write their cheques for the following day which was paid the same day and my wife confirmed with first choice what i actually owed via their call centre ect my wife went to First Choice office locally to pay. This is when it was highlighted that payment had been processed on One invoice again with out notification . I contacted First Choice regarding this and again they confirmed on listening to tapes that i had not been notified on the original booking that I was responsible for payment and that they would take out payments for all the holidays,

With regard your final note yes the family concerned did re imburse me but again bank transfers take time . The point is how can a company take money out of your account when they have confirmed on a previous occasion that they shouldnt have done it once for a service that I said i didnt require and when they confirm to you "payment is now due and you have 7 days to complete" and seek no authorisation and also make representation prior to the due date of invoice. I have completed all the relevant transactions for all the parties and i owe nothing , I am now looking forward to my Hoilday in 12 weeks time, But i find it hard to believe that Information gained can be used to pay in effect someone elses holiday if they had actually credited my personal holiday booking i wouldnt have made such a fuss But this shows incompetence and people not caring and just pressing buttons

Is ther anything else left to say

If you look at a post by me previously, first choice managed to take almost £7000 from our account without authorisation too. In the end I was like a dog with a bone and I emailed them or phoned them several times a day before emailing the Board of directors at the TUI head office in germany. I ended up speaking to someone very high up the chain and the matter was resolved with compensation (they did actually leave us extremely overdrawn without a penny to live on for almost 2 weeks!!) You need yo keep on at them (admin dept, ask FC for the direct number) or itll take ages.
Research on the net to get the email addresses for tui in germany and go from there. FC customer service in the uk are hopeless I found. I havent got the email address anymore or I would pass it on although I did put it on a topic before (someone complaining about thomson holidays I think), have a look if you can find it, you may get a reult out of that.
Hope this helps

sorry.. corporatecommunications@tuitravel.com