Paid a £500 deposit on Nationwide debit card but company refusing return

sanfairyanne

Back on May 31st I paid a deposit of £500 towards a sailing holiday in the UK. I used PayPal for the deposit which took the funds from my Nationwide Building Society Flex direct debit card. On July 9th I got an email explaining that the trip was cancelled and that "I 'should' receive a refund in a few days". I waited a week then tried calling but the phone went to answer phone. My emails were returned as undelivered. The trip was a sailing trip so I called the marina where the boat is based and they confirmed that the boat exists and they know the owner. I have since discovered that PayPal will not cover me for a deposit and the company is not covered with ABTA etc. So I'm wondering if I have a hope of getting my money back via Nationwide. My account is just a basic debit card account, not one of those ones where you pay a monthly fee. I know I should have paid with a credit card but I don't have one and mistakenly thought PayPal would cover me. Does anyone know if I have a chance with Nationwide ?

Many thanks in advance.

colsten

Have you followed this through with Nationwide? https://www.nationwide.co.uk/help/travel/about-coronavirus-travel-claims

Neruda

You certainly have a chance with Nationwide but that is not a guarantee. All you stand to lose is the time it takes to ask them to investigate.

And don't beat yourself up about not using a credit card: I am far from convinced that a credit card would have covered this either. Sounds like yet another reason not to use Paypal.

sanfairyanne

Thank you Naruda,

As luck would have it I just got an email telling me that the person I paid is prepared to refund me. I got this message via PayPal (after sending an official PayPal refund request yesterday) the funds are not in my account and I read that it takes up to 5 working days but it certainly looks very promising. I definitely should have been more aware of the risks before handing money over. Fingers crossed it all works out. 

p3ncilsharpener

Neruda said:

You certainly have a chance with Nationwide but that is not a guarantee. All you stand to lose is the time it takes to ask them to investigate.

And don't beat yourself up about not using a credit card: I am far from convinced that a credit card would have covered this either. Sounds like yet another reason not to use Paypal.

I don't see what chance they have with Nationwide, they performed the service the OP paid them for, debiting their account and transferring the money to a third party.

What happened after that is down to PayPal rules.

pjread

Glad you got it sorted, but honestly I'd avoid paypal whenever possible.

Eco_Miser

For future reference, if you pay direct by debit card you have a chance of using the Chargeback procedure.

Edi81

You didn’t pay with a Nationwide debit card. 

You paid with PayPal. 

You paid PayPal with a Nationwide debit card. 

There is a distinction and why PayPal can be a hassle with issues.