holiday company gone bust

[teri-lee-ann]

My Mum has just found out, less than 12 hours before she was due to go on holiday, that her travel company has gone bust and therefore she wont be going. Obviously she is gutted. She has also been told that she is going to have a struggle to get her money back, is there anything we can do? Does anybody know the deal with this?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Teri x

[randyraven]

Is the travel company part of ABTA ?
Did she pay via credit card ?
If she paid via credit card and the company have gone into liquidation, then you are covered by your credit card company. Give them a call.
This why I always use my credit card to buy services.

[Buenchico]

If the company was part of the Travelscope Holidays group, your mother's money is protected by their ABTA bond. See here for a list of companies within the group, and for details of how to make a claim:
http://www.abta.com/newsandinfo.shtml

Chris

[NORMANTHEDOG]

she will only receive her money back if they are fully paid up members of abta,my cousin had the same problem 2 yrs ago,but because of money problems their membership of abta had run out,she got nothing back,but if they are fully paid up she should be fine.

[dzug]

If it is Travelscope she WILL get her money back. Chris' link confirms it.

Not very quickly though - it will take time.

Credit card may be quicker - if they don't take the view that she's going to get it anyway so it's not their problem.

[legend758duo]

according to news they may get some money.
but dependant on certain things.
call abta on monday to find out.

[Dee Sa]

I am sorry to hear about your mum's holiday, I do hope she gets all her money back and in spite of the bad news she makes the best of xmas.
Dee

[lorri24601]

man that owns travelscope is on sky news at the moment and he said it will take time but customers will get money back

[teri-lee-ann]

Aww thanks everyone, I did look into it too and hopefully she will get her money back, it is abta. She also managed to get a cancellation for an even better holiday this morning so it's not all bad.
I just think it's disgusting that they can just do that, I can't even imagine what I'd be like if they did that to me!
Thanks again,
Teri x

[jno]

well, they can't help going bust, teri-lee-ann, you can bet it wasn't voluntary. But he said he did keep it going as long as possible so staff would get paid for Christmas, and even remortgaged his own house to do it.

[teri-lee-ann]

i apologise jno, i was mid rant with it all and to be honest to see my family all so upset at this time of year i wouldn't have cared if he'd sold himself to pay his employees! I'm sure he's an absolutely charming person, but he doesn't get my vote :)
just my opinion - i doubt he's losing sleep about it!