S75 on Cancelled Villa Plus Booking

Life__Goes__On

If you  booked a hotel room in Florida  and the hotel is open, then any Chargeback or S75 (even if allowed) would fail,  as the hotel has honored the contract.

eskbanker

Spyvii said:

I’m not sure I follow. I would be entitled, on that court case, on the basis of an arrangement between the credit card company and supplier of the hotel room.

Section 75 only grants you the same rights against the card company as you'd have against the retailer, so it's not some sort of comprehensive insurance policy - do you have insurance to cover this?  Have you read the MSE article on travel rights linked in an earlier post above?

In any case, even if you'd otherwise have a claim against your card company, the s75 situation in this area is complex - in general there has to be the direct debtor-creditor-supplier chain, which usually rules out the use of further parties such as travel agents when booking hotels.  The case you cite (in 2016, a different one from the 2006 one referred to by MSE) involves a fourth party who was essentially included in the payment arrangements at the behest of the supplier, which is a different scenario from your choice to involve a completely standalone arms-length intermediary such as your booking agent....

harsh_but_fair

There is going to be some fallout over all this.

 Everyone thought if they booked a holiday, villa or whatever using a CC then they are S75 protected - then suddenly they find everyone who handles bookings is suddenly an 'agent' and there is no protection at all.

eskbanker

harsh_but_fair said:

There is going to be some fallout over all this.

 Everyone thought if they booked a holiday, villa or whatever using a CC then they are S75 protected - then suddenly they find everyone who handles bookings is suddenly an 'agent' and there is no protection at all.

Everyone?  Suddenly?

The requirement for a direct debtor-creditor-supplier chain is nothing new and is mentioned in the earliest version I can find of the MSE s75 article, from 2008 (since when it's always been there): http://web.archive.org/web/20081010195220/https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases/#exceptions

It's been covered prominently when the likes of Monarch and Thomas Cook have collapsed, so anyone savvy enough to have heard of s75 but naive enough to believe it's some sort of universal panacea for all problems with purchases funded by credit card really only has themselves to blame....

P.S. That sounds harsh but I believe it's fair

Edit: if the agent is deemed to have supplied a package holiday then this may give additional protection.

Life__Goes__On

Sometimes when I read a thread I wonder if I've entered a parallel universe

born_again

harsh_but_fair said:

There is going to be some fallout over all this.

 Everyone thought if they booked a holiday, villa or whatever using a CC then they are S75 protected - then suddenly they find everyone who handles bookings is suddenly an 'agent' and there is no protection at all.

The biggest issue is people who only read 1 line "Pay on your credit card for S75 cover"
TBH, S75 cases are properly about 1 in 1000 (or even less) in the grand scheme of card disputes. 

harsh_but_fair

Yes of course I agree with eskbanker but the fact of the matter is we are talking about ordinary people the country over who think if they pay by CC then they have some protection and in fact find out they don't (99% of whom never read MSE let alone the article you quote !)