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

IA-UK-2016

glenwells, contacting the administrators might be a formality or as I suspect genuine misinformation by the customer rep. I doubt it if many are well versed in the technicalities of the process. The responsibility for the chargeback payout rests solely with the merchant acquirer, and in this case it looks like it's jp morgan. Our money is most likely sat in the coffers of jp morgan. Amazing, isn't it, how the cash always ends up in the same places (jp morgan, goldman sachs etc...). If jp morgan have been competent at their role then they will have built a hefty collateral for LCH, if not, then they may well need to take a hit to absorb the loss. It will all eventually come out in the wash: size of collateral vs chargeback claims but as you say most people need to make a decision now on whether to rebook hotel or bin the flights.

Bikertov

One of my colleagues at work booked his holiday to Barbados through LCH and paid by Debit Card. He is now worried all is lost.

However, he has found 2 Helpline phone numbers set up by the Administrators Smith and Williamson

http://www.lowcosttravelgroup.com/

0330 1595 283 (from the UK)
020 3282 8152 (if you are overseas)

He hasn't called them yet, but if anyone wants to try and get further info from the Administrators it might be worth shot.

Ainsley1

Comment re Merchant Acquirer noted, thanks all for pointing that out and the further comments.

It all is quite complicated!!

Can anyone explain who the Merchant Acquirer is in the relationships between debtor-creditor-supplier-agent-middlemen relationships?

Confused.dum

Clouise44

I've already started the claim for the hotel with Barclaycard so i'm fine with that part but the one thing that I am confused about is that even though the booking wasn't paid for by low cost holidays have the rooms actually be reserved? I contacted the hotel to confirm the reservation (to see if I could just pay for it again while i'm waiting for my refund) but whoever answered the email didn't seem to speak English very well. We've booked back into the same hotel with another company but i'm scared we will turn up on the day and be asked to pay for our previous booking too.

dingling68

Tesco Bank sent an email yesterday in response to my claim for unpaid accommodation and transfers:

The actions we can currently take on your behalf is dependent on whether your card is MasterCard or Visa .

MasterCard Customers
We have now received confirmation from MasterCard that we can use the statement from the Spanish government that confirms there are insufficient funds available from the bonding authority to support a chargeback. We are now able to begin processing chargebacks to refund your account for services that cannot be provided and will give priority to customers who are currently in resort, then by claims we have been made aware of in date of travel order.

Visa Customers
We have now received confirmation from Visa that we can obtain the relevant bonding authority documentation required to support your chargeback, on your behalf. We are now able to begin processing chargebacks to refund your account for services that cannot be provided and will give priority to customers who are currently in resort, then by claims we have been made aware of in date of travel order.

Hope that helps other Tesco customers

IA-UK-2016

The merchant acquirer will be the same for all booking types flight/hotel package or hotel only. The only reason it might be different is if LCH have chosen to implement two different payment processors. Unlikely, as it would be too much of a technical and administration overhead. If our money ends up in LCH accounts in both cases then the transaction lifecycle is the same.

Will be interesting to see what happens if the collateral held back by merchant acquirer is less than chargeback claims. Even under this circumstance it looks like the merchant acquirer will have to pay out. However recent cases suggest this won't be the case, with comet and land of leather collateral held back by merchant acquirer was nearly five times the actual chargeback claims.

sharp910sh

got an email from natwest/RBS:

As it stands we are keying the chargeback's without any documentation - however I would ask that you keep safe copies of all your invoices, confirmations and any correspondence between yourself and the retailer.

Once I am I possession of the information I require I can arrange to have the amount refunded back to your account.

Getting my hopes up now.

peskie_pixie

Received an email from Lloyds disputes yesterday in respect of the above CC:

"After reviewing your information, I'm pleased to tell you that I've applied a temporary credit to your account. This credit will show on your account whilst the merchant’s bank reviews the information.

Should the merchant's bank disagree with our actions, they'll provide us with more information, which we'll forward to you for review.

If they don't contact us, the credit will remain permanently on your account after 45 days."

The original payment was for accommodation only through hoteling.com, and I contacted Halifax on 16th July to lodge claim and emailed all the relevant documents on the same day to Lloyds disputes.

So looking promising

betterdaysahead

Yorkshire Bank have just paid me back my money, again with the 45 day caveat. It was paid on a Mastercard Debit Card. Mastercard seem to have gotten the ball rolling a bit quicker than Visa. Hope everyone else gets their's back soon!

Barter

Anyone had a result from PayPal yet?