Chargeback from Santander

Bridgetjs

I desperately need help and advice. I booked and paid for a holiday in full on my Santander debit card in November 2019. I was due to depart in April 2020 but the holiday was cancelled. Initially the holiday company offered me a refund but subsequently withdrew the offer in favour of a voucher with the option of a refund in March 2021 if I did not re-book. I did not want to accept this but the holiday company refused to budge so I applied to my bank for redress through the chargeback scheme. One 20th June 2020 my bank wrote to me saying that they were refunding me the money but that the holiday company had 45 days to appeal. I heard nothing more so assumed that, after the 45 days the matter was settled. On 2nd December I received a letter saying that the holiday company had appealed the decision and that the appeal had been allowed. As a result the bank are taking nearly £2500 out of my bank account with immediate effect. As there are insufficient funds in my account I will be forced into an unauthorised overdraft which will incur massive fees and will presumably have no access to money in the foreseeable future. The bank are apologetic and admit that they have let me down but are adamant that they are entitled to take the money and will do so. I am in despair. How am I to live. There is no prospect of a refund from the travel company for at least 3 months (if they don't go out of business in the interim) and when and if it comes it will have been eaten up by bank charges. To appeal or complain will take an age and even if I am successful it will not help my situation now. I have done nothing wrong. This is my money and yet I find myself at the mercy of the bank. Please can anyone offer any advice.

Westin

Which travel company?
Is it a Refund Credit Note?

Have you recently (in last two months) approached the travel company and asked them to convert the credit (hopefully a RCN) to cash?

Bridgetjs

The travel company is called Andante. They are not ABTA registered and therefore say they have no obligation to give me a cash refund which is why I applied to the bank. It is a Refund Credit Note but they refuse to honour it until March 2021 which is no good to me as the bank are imminently taking £2,500 from my account

mattyprice4004

You would have had £2500 gone anyway for the holiday, so it's only taking what was going to be spent already.

Unfortunately the banks are a little behind with everything going on - less staff plus a massive additional workload means that it has taken a bit of extra time to deal with some cases (quite a few threads about this already), but ultimately most are taking the view that a credit note is sufficient redress.

Bridgetjs

My point is that I don't have £2,500. The bank refunded it in June and now, 6 months later, are without any warning taking it back again. Which leaves me with an unauthorised bank overdraft and huge fees. So my credit is shot and any refund I may eventually get from the travel company will be eaten up in paying back the bank. And in the meantime I don't even have money to put food on the table. How is that fair.

[Deleted User]

I think the point being made is the money had been spent already and that you knew there was a chance it could be reclaimed.  Agree it is one heck of a timeframe, so I would get back to the bank to ask them what they can do for you. For starters an authorized overdraft without applying any penalty for unauthorized overdraft.   I am not surprised you feel let down but I seem to remember in the beginning banks were quite quick to agree a chargeback until they realised they were being successfully reversed due to RCN’s and vouchers being offered.  

Sadly not a lot you can do except wait. 

Edited to add.  If the company is last minute.com you may get paid out quicker than March?   

Westin

Sadly I don’t think there is a short term magic solution. 

I would discuss the matter with your bank if you feel this will place you in genuine hardship.  It might also be worth talking to ABTOT https://www.abtot.com/ to see if they have agreed protocols set up with their bond members around refunding RCN’s.  ABTA has guidance for their members, perhaps ABTOT had similar guidance.

@Alan_Bowen  might jump on the thread to offer advice.

Not suggesting that this applies to you but I believe their have been several recent issues with fraudulent claims recently.  People making chargebacks claims when not due, or claiming a chargeback and receiving a refund from the supplier.  I do wonder if Andante might have been success in defending the dispute by saying that you have been given and accepted a refund credit note.

Bridgetjs

I take your point but at no time in the last 5 months did the bank tell me that the travel company had appealed nor that the case was under review. They just hit me with a letter dated 25th November (which arrived on 2nd December) telling me they were going to take the money out in 14 days. My account will be cleaned out, I will have a massive overdraft and fees and no access to money in the run up to Xmas and beyond. The overdraft fees alone will wipe out a chunk of the refund and all they can say is that they may be able to offer me something as a gesture of goodwill. So no holiday, substantially reduced refund in order to cover overdraft costs and my credit rating down the toilet. How is that in any way fair. If at any point the bank had told me that the case was being appealed I would have made financial provision. 

Bridgetjs

In response to Westin - When I made the chargeback claim to the bank I sent them all my email correspondence with Andante (the travel company) which showed quite clearly that I was not prepared to accept an RCN. I originally made a complaint to the FCA and Andante threatened to go after me for their costs if I pursued it.

[Deleted User]

Bridgetjs said:

 How is that in any way fair. If at any point the bank had told me that the case was being appealed I would have made financial provision. 

It isn’t fair but neither is Covid and many people losing out one way or another.    It is non of our business what you did with the money or how you would have made financial provision if you had known earlier.  Are you saying your incoming money has reduced since you booked the holiday?  If so your bank will be aware of this and should be able to work with you to reach an amicable solution until you receive the refund from the travel company.  Get proactive and the time will soon pass.   

Alan_Bowen

Firstly it is an appalling state of affairs and others who bank with Santander should take note. Let's look at the law, it says you are entitled to a full refund within 14 days if an operator cancels a holiday, they can offer a voucher and many are happy to accept one, but there is no legal obligation to do so, and advice issued by Visa and Mastercard to the banks in relation to chargebacks made it clear that only if a voucher was accepted by the customer, could the chargeback be refused. You clearly did not want the voucher but thought you had no choice. That is clearly not the case.
When a bank contacts the supplier of the service, Andante in this case, they are given 10 days to respond, so for it to take 6 months for the bank to act is a sign of what a mess Santander are in at present. You need to go back to the bank and fight your case, firstly in the immediate instance to stop the withdrawal, and you will need to talk to a manager about this, and then to ask for an immediate review of the decision to refund Andante as that appears on the facts you have presented to have been the wrong decision. The problem with debit, as opposed to credit cards, is that your right to a refund is not enshrined in law, it is a voluntary scheme but there are clear guidelines and they do not appear to have been followed.
You should contact ABTOT but they are a trade association in name only, in reality, it is run by an insurance company that provides financial protection to companies who do not want to be or cannot be members of ABTA for whatever reason and I am not sure they will have any real interest, but they may prove me wrong. What they don't want to do is to drive any of their members out of business as that then costs them money, unlike ABTA who are not providing financial protection themselves but through bonds provided by banks and insurers.
Finally, this cries out for an immediate complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman scheme but that is taking months at the moment so cannot help in the short term. For immediate advice, I would contact Citizens Advice whose helpline is 0800 144 8848. And best of luck!