Daft question - cancelling holiday

Miss_Orangey_Goodness

Hi, can anyone answer this as my documents are at work and I am going into panic mode.

Had a 10day holiday booked for September to Cyprus (with either Thomas Cook or Thompsons, cant remember which). I have paid the £500 deposit (balance left is £1750), however it looks likely our holiday will have to be cancelled. I know I will lose the deposit but I wont be made to pay the balance will I? I have not taken out insurance as I had hoped to search around before paying the balance off in July....

whitts

You will not have to pay the balance, you will lose the deposit. Not sure why you are cancelling, however another option would be changing the date or destination and transfering the deposit over. Hope this puts your mind at rest

Miss_Orangey_Goodness

ohhh phew thanks very much for this, you have put my mind at rest

Wammer

You will need to check if the deposit you have paid is a "low cost" one. If it is you normally have to pay the balance of the DEPOSIT within 8 weeks of booking. You would still be liable for this if you cancel.

This should have been made clear to you when you booked.

HXDave

Like the others have said, if you have paid the full deposit (as opposed to a low cost / part deposit), you will have nothing further to pay, provided you make the people who you booked it with aware that you wish to cancel the booking before the full balance is due (bal due date - 8/10/12 weeks prior to departure).

There are, however, a few options, depending on why you wish to cancel.

1. you could keep the holiday 'live', and not cancel until the day the balance is due / holiday goes into further charges, just in case circumstanses change, and you are able to go on the holiday. In not, and you cancel just before the 'balance due date', you pay nothing more than you have already paid (ie the deposit). Just make a very prominant note though, as reminders are very rarely sent these days, unless you are late paying.

2. if you do the above, and your circumstances do not change, you might be lucky enough that something changes with the holiday, and you are offered a free cancellation and full refund of your deposit. This could be something like major flight change, accommodation change / reduced facilities etc etc etc.

3. Risky Option - You could take insurance out now (just a cheapie one), and maybe hope that something will happen between the date you take out the insurance and the balance due date. Whilst the holiday insurance will not cover for anything that has happened before the date the policy was taken out (not sure why you need to cancel - this was never mentioned), something could occur that is a different insurable event that you could then claim on before the balance due date.

4. or you could just cancel, and forget about everything, and look forward to the rest of the year.

Hope this helps a little.

HXDave

Miss_Orangey_Goodness

Thank you - you are most helpful. I paid the full deposit and I know I will lose that, thats fine (well its not but I accept it ha ha). I think I will take insurance out now, and see nearer the time whether its going ahead or not. It was basically a holiday with OH but we have split up and not sure if its for definite or not...since I will become a single parent I wont be able to afford a holiday at all. However, its in its early stages so there is time but I just wondered worse case scenario would I still be liable to pay as it was in my name.
Thank you for your time