Booking and paying for a big holiday

SadieO

Hi, I would really appreciate some advice. Husband and I are looking to book a dream trip, for which we have the money saved up. Our only credit card is a Tesco one which has a £1K limit. Last time we booked a big holiday (years ago) we did it through a travel agent and they let us pay in instalments so we could pay on the credit card and stay under the limit. I just assumed we would do similar this time.

However getting quotes for the same flights + hotels we found that what we could get at the travel agents for over £3K was being offered at around £2.5K on expedia :shocked:. One particular deal was almost £700 cheaper on expedia! So obviously booking through expedia is the better option; however I don’t have the credit limit to do it in one go, and looking through their website they don’t offer the option to split payments for flight + hotel trips, only package holidays. So I’m not sure what to do.

Could I ask Tesco to up my credit limit, even as a one-off just to pay for this? Is this even possible? And if so, how likely is it that they would increase it by 2 or 3 times what it currently is? I guess what I’m asking is, is this a reasonable thing for me to ask them, or totally stupid thing that they would never even consider! And, is there any harm in asking? If it makes a difference, I have had the card for about 8 or 9 years, put a couple of hundred pounds on it each month and pay it off in full every month.

Or, should I pay for the trip on my debit card? The money is sitting in my account so is not a problem, however I have always been under the impression that you should use a credit card for big purchases. And, as this trip is one of the most expensive things I’ve ever bought I don’t want to do anything stupid!

Can anybody offer any advice, or any other options I have not thought of? Many thanks and sorry if these are stupid questions

dazza.mk

SadieO wrote: »

I have always been under the impression that you should use a credit card for big purchases. And, as this trip is one of the most expensive things I’ve ever bought I don’t want to do anything stupid!:)

Firstly, are you buying an 'off the shelf' package (ie Thomson/Thomas Cook etc) from your travel agent?

If so then your protection only goes as far as making the booking/supplying the ticket. If anything actually goes wrong on the holiday then the travel agent (and therefore the credit card company) has no liability.

If you are buying an 'in-house' package then (assuming you are booking early enough) you only need to pay a deposit (even 1p) on the credit card to be protected, you don't need to pay the whole £2.5k-£3k.

SadieO

Thanks dazza.mk for taking the trouble to reply. I don't think it counts as a package, we just went to the travel agents and said how much would it be for flights and x nights in x hotel.

Discovering that we could book the same flights and hotel through expedia for much less, we now would obviously rather go through them. My dilemma is, I can't pay expedia on a credit card in one go so my options are (a) get an increased credit limit, enabling me to book through expedia and pay on my credit card or b) pay expedia using debit card. What I was wondering is, is option (a) possible/likely and is option (b) inadvisable.

Otherwise it's back to the drawing board, as I'm not crazy about booking through the travel agents now I know how much I could be saving going through expedia!

YorkshireBoy

You may as well use a debit card because section 75 wouldn't apply if one of the 'packaged' element suppliers went bust.

If there is a problem with Expedia then you always have the option of chargeback...even on a debit card.

And finally, I can't see Tesco trebling your credit limit...unless your circumstances have changed significantly since they set the limit.

SadieO

Thanks for your reply, YorkshireBoy that is good to know.

dazza.mk

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

You may as well use a debit card because section 75 wouldn't apply if one of the 'packaged' element suppliers went bust.

Yorkshire Boy, not quite so clear cut, there previous cases where the FOS has taken that a custom made package was covered by Section 75, see attached case study 31/6

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/31/creditcards-31.htm

Obviously this wouldn't apply to Expedia as you are effectively buying hotel and flights separately, but might (emphasis on might) apply to the travel agent.

Only thing to add is that if you are using Expedia make sure you use Topcashback :- 10.1% cashback on hotels (next 5 days) and 1.01% cashback flights (currently)

YorkshireBoy

dazza.mk wrote: »

Yorkshire Boy, not quite so clear cut, there previous cases where the FOS has taken that a custom made package was covered by Section 75, see attached case study 31/6

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/31/creditcards-31.htm

Obviously this wouldn't apply to Expedia as you are effectively buying hotel and flights separately, but might (emphasis on might) apply to the travel agent.

Thanks for the case study link.

It was specifically Expedia I was referring to, because I use them myself and am aware that they have a separate 'Package Holiday' section (a tab towards the right of the screen)...but obviously this means a much inflated price for the 'same holiday'.

dazza.mk

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Thanks for the case study link.

It was specifically Expedia I was referring to, because I use them myself and am aware that they have a separate 'Package Holiday' section (a tab towards the right of the screen)...but obviously this means a much inflated price for the 'same holiday'.

Agreed ;-) I'd probably use Expedia too in the circumstances, just clarifying that it might not be like with like purely on S.75 issue.

chanz4

if you are having travel insurance anyway, you are covered

SadieO

Thanks everyone for the advice and information it is much appreciated.

newbutold

SadieO wrote: »

Hi, I would really appreciate some advice. Husband and I are looking to book a dream trip, for which we have the money saved up. Our only credit card is a Tesco one which has a £1K limit. Last time we booked a big holiday (years ago) we did it through a travel agent and they let us pay in instalments so we could pay on the credit card and stay under the limit. I just assumed we would do similar this time.

However getting quotes for the same flights + hotels we found that what we could get at the travel agents for over £3K was being offered at around £2.5K on expedia :shocked:. One particular deal was almost £700 cheaper on expedia! So obviously booking through expedia is the better option; however I don’t have the credit limit to do it in one go, and looking through their website they don’t offer the option to split payments for flight + hotel trips, only package
holidays. So I’m not sure what to do.

Could I ask Tesco to up my credit limit, even as a one-off just to pay for this? Is this even possible? And if so, how likely is it that they would increase it by 2 or 3 times what it currently is? I guess what I’m asking is, is this a reasonable thing for me to ask them,
or totally stupid thing that they would never even consider! And, is there any harm in asking? If it makes a difference, I have had the card for about 8 or 9 years, put a couple of hundred pounds on it each month and pay it off in full every month.

Or, should I pay for the trip on my debit card? The money is sitting in my account so is not a problem, however I have always been
under the impression that you should use a credit card for big purchases. And, as this trip is one of the most expensive things I’ve ever bought I don’t want to do anything stupid!

Can anybody offer any advice, or any other options I have not thought of? Many thanks and sorry if these are stupid questions

To qualify for the credit card protection you don't need to pay the whole holiday on the credit card, just part of it - see Martin's article on the main site. However if you are booking flights & hotels separately as opposed to a package, you will need to pay part of each booking on the credit card.

I recently booked a holiday costing over 2k, I paid £10 on my credit card, then the remaining amount on my debit card. Doing it this way, I also saved money as most places charge apples 2.5% of the amount as a fee for paying by credit card, so I only got charged a fee on the £10.