Consumer advice – travel tips – travel news

Consumer holiday tips & advice: With the main holiday season fast approaching its important that you think ahead before you travel..

So before you book your next holiday or flight consider how you will pay and what travel documents it would be handy to keep with you.

For example paying by Credit card gives you protection under the consumer credit act – however if your abroad only an atol bonded flight or holiday will fly you home, if the airline goes bust..

How should I pay?
Paying for holidays with credit cards is convenient and provides you with a high degree of protection. If you spend between £100 and £30,000 on your holiday you will be covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and be entitled to a refund should something going wrong, such as a flight getting cancelled or the carrier going bust.

For purchases made with a Visa debit, prepaid and Electron cards, as well as Visa or Mastercard credit card payments, you can also issue a chargeback claim. However, unlike section 75 this is not a legally enshrined right, and claims must be lodged with your provider within 120 days of you being aware of the problem.

But the good news is there’s no lower or upper limit on the amount you can claim back (so you can claim for losses totalling less than £100).

What documents should I carry?
It is always advisable to keep copies of travel insurance documents, booking details and other arrangements close to hand, as well as your bank account information and contact numbers.

• If you have a web-mail email account such as hotmail, you can store copies of the relevant information as downloadable attachments in the event of an emergency.

If things go wrong and you need to reverse a transaction, then you have the option of Chargeback available to you..

Chargeback
Chargeback is a process that allows you to reverse a transaction if you are unhappy with the item received or if your credit or Visa debit card has been used fraudulently.

Chargeback is not enshrined in law like section 75, but is part of the Visa Scheme Rules, which participating banks subscribe to. It applies to all Visa debit cards, and can also be used for Visa credit card purchases where section 75 is not applicable – for goods costing less than £100 for instance. It also covers prepaid Visa cards and Visa Electron purchases.

When can chargeback be used?
Like section 75, chargeback can be used in cases of goods not arriving, arriving damaged, arriving not as described, or where the merchant has ceased trading. There is also a 120-day time limit on claims.

Claims must be addressed to the bank that provides your Visa debit card or your credit card, which in turn will put in a request to the merchant’s bank. As a result, you should still get your money back from the merchant’s bank, even if the merchant has ceased to trade.