Lowcostholidays collapses – your rights as 140,000 hit by travel chaos

nicolaclare

Hi,

I've booked for me and 2 friends to go to Ibiza in September, obviously I've been caught up in all this Low Cost disaster, I've already put a claim in with the administrators but I've heard nothing back as of yet, I've also put a claim in with TSB to see if I can get my money back.

One of my friends is making this very difficult for me as she's having a go at me by making it all out to be my fault.

Gully2703_2

Hi all,

I am a first time poster, though I have been following this discussion since the demise of Lowcostholidays (LCH).

I too, like many users on here, have been affected by the decision of LCH to cease trading and appointing confused administrators to handle certain subsidiaries of the company - most probably the ones that the majority of people on here had booked through. I had originally booked a holiday package with Expedia for flights and a hotel in Dubai for my wife and I. We then decided against the hotel and cancelled that part of the package with Expedia. I spent days looking for an alternative hotel and eventually found one which was booked through LCH. The rest is history.

I'm now focusing on attempting to get something back from the protections we are so often sold. I paid for my hotel with a Nationwide credit card but despite many calls and emails, it seems to me that they either do not have any idea about the eventual outcome of the disputes raised or they have been ill prepared, being completely reactive. The Nationwide travel insurance included with the Flex packages will not cover such an eventuality. Even the End Supplier Failure cover excludes the failure of agents and the like.

My hope, for now, rests on a section 75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 claim, but i am sceptical on banks accepting such claims. For such a claim to be valid there must be a valid debtor-creditor-supplier agreement. As Martin has pointed out those who bought a package holiday may well be more protected than those, like me, who purchased accommodation only.

I have been reading decisions from the Financial Ombudsman Service on related topics all day. Whilst they are not the ultimate arbitrators, unless you have the money and are willing to proceed to court, the ombudsman is the final port of call. I will point out that their decisions do not form the precedents our courts do. The decisions can be inconsistent, to say the least, but there is scope.

For those in my position and for section 75 purposes, I would suggest that there has been what is known as a collateral agreement between us and LCH that has been breached and should be covered under the Consumer Credit Act. Under the current school of thought, there is no direct breach with the hotel (which banks will consider the supplier), but our agreement with LCH to ensure that our hotel arrangements are made and funds transferred (the collateral agreement) has been breached. This in itself is a service for which LCH took a commission, so I can not see why there should not be recognition of breach of such agreement,

This is my opinion having potentially lost a lot of money myself. I should make clear that I am not a solicitor, but I have completed both the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course. I now work in the insurance market handling third party personal injury claims.

I know that one argument in this respect may not be agreed, but if we all make the same arguments, the pressure will rise. Maybe someone who comes across this will be a notorious litigant and will secure something for all of us.

P.s. Do not sign up for any claim service in relation to this. Its an unscrupulous practice.

IA-UK-2016

Hi Gully,

In a similar position. Had an ATOL protected holiday booked via a UK agent. Removed the hotel component at a later date and booked a different hotel with LCH, as I thought it would be a better and cheaper option - ouch!! Anyway, I paid the full amount via debit card (barclays). Had a couple of good conversations with them; latest feedback was that claims are being settled but the man couldn't tell me whether these were credit cards via S75, or chargeback via debit card as he said he's not involved with the disputes team but had seen emails detailing settlements. I'm hoping that a chargeback on debit card is successful especially as the visa debit website claims that it is a safe option for airline and travel agent failure.

Have you considered a chargeback claim on credit card bypassing S75 and the 3rd party relationship? I read on the other mse forum that credit card claims would be processed as chargebacks as this is a much simpler process than S75.

thisrain

I have read through some pretty heartbreaking stories over the past week, and if there is anything to take out of this debacle, it's that we're not alone.


I'm sure many have asked "why me" and taken it very personally (I know I did) and there were few things worse than people extolling ATOL's virtues when almost all of us would have assumed LCH were covered. That said, it is a lesson I'm sure many of us have and will learn.


Like many, the first I heard was from Hoppa. We'd booked on the Friday afternoon at 2.30 (probably as the desks were being cleared), and were to leave for Cyprus last Wednesday (20th),. We didn't even get our flights (with Thomson) confirmed; only a bizarre email littered with errors about how our "request" was with the suppliers. Every penny of our booking truly did go up in smoke. No flights, no hotel and no transfers.



We paid by debit card, and after speaking to Nationwide, they commenced a visa dispute and told us the
account would first be credited within one business day, then three, and currently ten. The packaged FlexPlus insurance was less than useless, but to be honest, no-one (the banks, the administrators, those purporting to offer advice) has really come out of this smelling of roses. I fully expect it to be kicked into the longest of long grass.



We are slowly coming to terms with the whole thing, but knowing we should be sunning it as I write isn't the easiest thing to deal with. That was out holiday money - without knowing whether we'd get anything back, it was too much of a risk to book elsewhere, especially given the profiteering that went on in the immediate aftermath. That's another issue entirely.



I wish everyone affected all the best. The best way of describing the feeling of being conned (the
administrators were apparently called in on the Monday so that's what this amounts to, and bosses at LCH must have known for some time) was by being punched in the stomach.



I hope someone, someday, is held accountable, but like any hope of getting anything back, I've stopped holding my breath.

gully2703

Hi IA,

I'v been given so much conflicting information from Nationwide, so I am now preparing myself for an ombudsman review; hence the legal considerations.

They first advised me that a section 75 claim would be the only route to pursue, only then to be informed in subsequent conversations that the charge back process will be followed at first instance.

The banks are playing catch up with the news and clearly have not been prepared for something like this. But at the end of the day, they are businesses and will, in my opinion, attempt to limit losses from this.

The situation isn't being helped by lack of communication from the likes of VISA. Previous posts have suggested that they are awaiting announcements from administrators, but regardless, the insufficent bond lodged with the Spanish authorities has already been announced and the level of debt the company was in is clear to a laymen, so why delay?

I have sympathy for everyone affected by this awful situation and I am surprised that it has barely made headline news when considering the amount of families involved.

Gully

gully2703

Gully2703 wrote: »

Hi all,

I am a first time poster, though I have been following this discussion since the demise of Lowcostholidays (LCH).

I too, like many users on here, have been affected by the decision of LCH to cease trading and appointing confused administrators to handle certain subsidiaries of the company - most probably the ones that the majority of people on here had booked through. I had originally booked a holiday package with Expedia for flights and a hotel in Dubai for my wife and I. We then decided against the hotel and cancelled that part of the package with Expedia. I spent days looking for an alternative hotel and eventually found one which was booked through LCH. The rest is history.

I'm now focusing on attempting to get something back from the protections we are so often sold. I paid for my hotel with a Nationwide credit card but despite many calls and emails, it seems to me that they either do not have any idea about the eventual outcome of the disputes raised or they have been ill prepared, being completely reactive. The Nationwide travel insurance included with the Flex packages will not cover such an eventuality. Even the End Supplier Failure cover excludes the failure of agents and the like.

My hope, for now, rests on a section 75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 claim, but i am sceptical on banks accepting such claims. For such a claim to be valid there must be a valid debtor-creditor-supplier agreement. As Martin has pointed out those who bought a package holiday may well be more protected than those, like me, who purchased accommodation only.

I have been reading decisions from the Financial Ombudsman Service on related topics all day. Whilst they are not the ultimate arbitrators, unless you have the money and are willing to proceed to court, the ombudsman is the final port of call. I will point out that their decisions do not form the precedents our courts do. The decisions can be inconsistent, to say the least, but there is scope.

For those in my position and for section 75 purposes, I would suggest that there has been what is known as a collateral agreement between us and LCH that has been breached and should be covered under the Consumer Credit Act. Under the current school of thought, there is no direct breach with the hotel (which banks will consider the supplier), but our agreement with LCH to ensure that our hotel arrangements are made and funds transferred (the collateral agreement) has been breached. This in itself is a service for which LCH took a commission, so I can not see why there should not be recognition of breach of such agreement,

This is my opinion having potentially lost a lot of money myself. I should make clear that I am not a solicitor, but I have completed both the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course. I now work in the insurance market handling third party personal injury claims.

I know that one argument in this respect may not be agreed, but if we all make the same arguments, the pressure will rise. Maybe someone who comes across this will be a notorious litigant and will secure something for all of us.

P.s. Do not sign up for any claim service in relation to this. Its an unscrupulous practice.

I cannot edit my previous post for some reason but wanted to edit the text in paragraph 6 to:

For those in my position and for section 75 purposes, I would suggest that there has been what is known as a collateral agreement between us and LCH that has been breached and should be covered under the Consumer Credit Act. Under the current school of thought, there is no direct relationship or breach thereof with the hotel (which banks will consider the supplier), but our agreement with LCH to ensure that our hotel arrangements are made and funds transferred (the collateral agreement) should be treated as a separate contract for supply of services and has been breached. This in itself is a service for which LCH took a commission, so I can not see why there should not be recognition of breach of such agreement

Derek_Duval

Just returned from holiday and had to pay 900 euros for hotel. Problem is I paid via PayPal via barclaycard over 180 days ago, so looks like I can't open a dispute with PayPal. I've managed to claim through barclaycard on PayPal transactions in the past after the 180 days have expired, but never for this amount, not looking good. Any advice?

gazroobari

Yes, it surprised me too that MSE had stopped further comments being added; I can't see it being due to the amount of data - even if three thousand posts had as much as a thousand characters each, that would still only be 3Mb, which is peanuts. There must be some other reason. Shame really, since it was the best form of communication we all had to support eah other. I will email MSE too - I think we all should.

dee85

Try also going onto Lowcostholidays Facebook page, a lot of people have been commenting on their last post.

dee85

Look at the above post from Faye, they have reset the comment section for the article. If we could somehow guide people there we can start a new conversation.