Real-life MMD: Should we keep quiet about 'free' holiday?

bargainbin

Yes, contact them and insist the money is still in your account. You will have peace of mind and your honesty should be rewarded.
Similar thing happened to me regarding an energy bill about 5 years ago. I paid the bill and the money went out of my account. The electricity company "lost" it. :eek:. For a while it was shown on our account as pending/outstanding. :mad: Then we were told it had been sorted out by the banks involved. :j A full 28 months later our account was credited with the amount - around £225. We immediately told the company and eventually after another 6 months of correspondance we were told to keep it for all the hassle we'd been put through. :T

shaun7033

This happened to me back in 1989.I was going to Australia with a friend and I had only paid the deposit & insurance approx:£125.
I received a letter confirming that the balance(£900) had been paid even though I did not pay it.I received a phone call some months later after my trip from the travel agent and I told them that it had been paid and I could not find any receipts.Very cheap holiday!!.

ShakeYourmoney

I once bought a digital camera and some books from Amazon, and my Credit Card was not debited the £105 I owed. The books, but not the camera were sent twice, so I had to return one lot at their expense. I contacted their Customer Services to do this and was told if I remember correctly, that somebody had dispatched a van full of stuff without reading the bar codes on the packages, so they had no record of them.
I quoted the order number and told them to charge my account. Nothing happened, and I rang again some time later, I think when I got the next Statement. Again nothing happened, so I rang a third time. After nothing still had happened, I finally gave up: I felt I had made enough effort in trying to be honest.

If you have made reasonable effort to sort out what you owe, I think you can have a clear conscience. But take care, and be prepared for the money to be debited at a later time: put it on one side until you are sure it won't be.

gayleygoo

If you have already contacted them to tell them you didn't take the money, then I'd be tempted to just leave it at that! Maybe contact them one more time for written confirmation that the holiday is "paid" for, if they send that out then you've done the best you could and someone else is definitely to blame! Do keep the money in your account, because they may take it in a few months time..

I bought a few pairs of shoes in a clothes shop one day, used my debit card to pay and never thought any more of it. Six months later that charge was finally taken out of my account (I had no idea they hadn't taken it already), leaving me overdrawn without notice and £180 in bank charges by subsequent card payments I made without knowing I was overdrawn! I was raging, but my bank told me they were within their rights to still take that money so far down the line that the shoes I'd bought had already fallen apart!

magentalady

There's no way I'd be able to sleep at night, let alone enjoy my holiday, knowing that I hadn't paid what I owed. Just telling the company once wouldn't be enough for me, I'd keep insisting until they took the payment. Failing that, I'd want written notice that they were never going to be taking it and that the matter was definitely closed.

I had a situation where I owed my company around £500 for some personal travel that had been booked through work. I had the money all ready in my account, but work never billed me for it. I queried it and they said that they had no record of the transaction, so couldn't bill me for it. I checked and triple checked and tried to insist on paying them, until they finally sent me an email confirming that they absolutely could not and would not be billing me for those flights. Then, and only then, did I allow myself to feel chuffed about the extra £500 I suddenly had in my account!

onesixfive

Dont risk being turned away at the airport, or incurring bank charges if they take it later - ask for the date the payment was made/received - and as your bank can provide you with no proof of payment, ask them to check their BACS system for the account from which payment was claimed.

florere

This isn't a moral dilemma, the moral answer is simple, get in touch with them again, they money must have come from somewhere otherwise the books wouldn't balance.

Dageomel

I am delighted to see so many posts advocating the honest approach.
It's a matter of self respect. Do you feel better for being straight or for ripping someone off.

gloriouslyhappy

Dageomel wrote: »

I am delighted to see so many posts advocating the honest approach.
It's a matter of self respect. Do you feel better for being straight or for ripping someone off.

Says it all, really. Who wants to live looking over their shoulder all the time?

Happy hols..

chocky

I doubt you'd get turned away at the airport - the travel agents would have contacted you before departure date to give you the tickets for your holiday. Keep the money in your account just in case .......