UK Finance guidance for consumers on the cessation of trading of Thomas Cook

Following the cessation of trading of Thomas Cook Group plc as of 23 September 2019, UK Finance has developed guidance on those protections available to consumers who have purchased travel or a holiday package using a debit or credit card.

We will update this page as more information becomes available.

The full list of companies included in the Thomas Cook Group are available here.

Repatriation Arrangements

  • The CAA has committed to repatriate all customers currently overseas and due to travel back to the UK between 23 September 2019 and 6 October 2019, with a new flight home arranged at no extra cost. From a small number of locations, passengers will have to book their own return flights. Please see the CAA website for more details.
  • Customers who are currently overseas and due to travel back on or after 7 October 2019 will not automatically have a flight rebooked by the CAA and will need to make your own arrangements to return home. If your trip is ATOL protected you will be reimbursed for the cost of your new flight. If you are not ATOL protected and your original booking was made by debit card you can make a claim for the cost of your original return flight under the chargeback provision set out below. If you are not ATOL protected and your original booking was made by credit card you can make a claim for the cost of your new flight under the Section 75 provision set out below.

Refund arrangements - customers with ATOL protection

  • There is information about how to check if your flight or holiday is ATOL protected on the CAA website.
  • If you have an ATOL protected booking with Thomas Cook which includes flights operated by the Thomas Cook Group the CAA is making arrangements for refunds to be made and will be providing more information on their website about the process for making applications by 30 September 2019.
  • If your flight was booked as part of an ATOL protected trip through another travel company or travel agent which is not part of Thomas Cook, please speak to your travel company directly or visit their website with regards to your arrangements.
  • If you booked a flight only with Thomas Cook which is ATOL protected, you should make a claim for a refund via the ATOL scheme.
  • Customers who paid by Direct Debit - If your holiday or flight is ATOL-protected, Thomas Cook customers who paid by Direct Debit will be fully reimbursed under the ATOL protection scheme. Direct Debits scheduled for collection on dates after 24th September will not be processed due to the insolvency. The CAA is making arrangements for refunds to be made and will be providing more information on their website about the process for making applications by 30 September 2019
  • Customers who paid by credit card or debit card - If your holiday or flight is ATOL protected, Thomas Cook customers who paid by debit card or credit card will be fully reimbursed under the ATOL protection scheme. The CAA is making arrangements for refunds to be made and will be providing more information on their website about the process for making applications by 30 September 2019.

Refund arrangements - customers without ATOL protection

  • If you booked a flight only with Thomas Cook which is not ATOL protected and made the booking by debit or credit card you can make a claim under the chargeback and Section 75 provisions, as set out below. Your issuer will advise you on what supporting documentation is required.

There is a mechanism for your card issuer to reclaim money from the retailer's bank where you do not get the goods or services you paid for, including if the retailer has gone out of business. This is called a?chargeback.

Chargeback is not a legal right. You should address a chargeback claim to your debit or credit card issuer, which in turn will put in a request to the retailer's bank. The process for managing these claims is determined by a set of rules from American Express, MasterCard or Visa. There are no guarantees your issuer will be able to recover the money through chargeback, but they will assess your claim fairly. With a chargeback, the value claimed cannot exceed the value of the original transaction.

If you booked your flight or holiday using a credit card and you do not have ATOL protection, you may also have what is known as Section 75 protection. This provision (part of the Consumer Credit Act 1974) protects you if you use your credit card to buy something costing more than £100 and up to £30,000.

There are certain requirements that need to be fulfilled for a Section 75 claim to be available. The company from whom you bought the goods or services must be the supplier of those goods and services.

You are legally entitled to get your money back if the supplier you bought the product or service from:

 

  • breaks their contract with you, including if they go out of business; or
  • does not deliver what they have promised;

You are even able to claim if you only used your credit card to pay for part of the cost of what you bought. The protection may also cover any losses you have over and above the original amount you paid or if you incur additional reasonable costs to get back home. We strongly recommend customers talk to their credit card provider before incurring additional costs to see if they will be covered.

There are some instances where Section 75 does not apply, such as when goods or services are paid for by a secondary cardholder or are bought through an intermediary. This includes aggregators which sell on flight and hotel bookings. However, agencies like these often have their own payment protection systems in place.

More detail on chargeback and Section 75 claims can be found in our consumer guide. Customers should speak to their card issuer in the first instance before they incur further costs as these will need to be considered on a case by case basis.

Further information is available from:

ABTA: https://www.abta.com/news/thomas-cook-group

Civil Aviation Authority: https://thomascook.caa.co.uk/

Further information from individual debit and credit card issuers:

Barclays https://www.barclays.co.uk/help/insurance/travel/ThomasCook-incident/ or Telephone 03457 345 345

Capital One: Telephone 0333 0000 205

Co-operative Bank https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/news/2019/thomas-cook

HSBC https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Lloyds: https://www.lloydsbank.com/help-guidance/thomas-cook-information.asp

MBNA: https://www.mbna.co.uk/support/thomas-cook-information.html

Nationwide  https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/travel/important-travel-information or Telephone 0800 302011

NatWest  https://personal.natwest.com/personal/service-status.html

Royal Bank of Scotland  https://personal.rbs.co.uk/personal/service-status.html

Santander  https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/customer-support/travel-company-ceased-trading

Tesco Bank https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/t5/News/Thomas-Cook/td-p/28302   

Vanquis - https://www.vanquis.co.uk/existing-customers or Telephone 0330 099 3000

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Protect yourself against Fraud - Take Five to Stop Fraud

Consumers should also be vigilant of criminals attempting to use the cessation of trading of Thomas Cook as an opportunity to trick people into revealing personal or financial information.

Criminals will often use the publicity around these sorts of events as a chance to pose as a genuine organisation, including banks, police officers, retailers and travel companies. Often the criminal will pretend to be from the impacted company, such as Thomas Cook, or claim they are dealing with an issue resulting from the collapse.

Fraudulent emails, phone calls or text messages often claim to be able to help customers and assist with refunds.

Using Thomas Cook as a cover story, the criminal will then attempt to get the recipient to disclose personal or financial information, which they will then use for their own fraudulent purposes.

Consumers are urged to follow the advice of the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign:

  1. A genuine bank or organisation will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, full password or to move money to another account. Only give out your personal or financial details to use a service that you have given your consent to, that you trust and that you are expecting to be contacted by.
  2. Don't be tricked into giving a fraudster access to your personal or financial details. Never automatically click on a link in an unexpected email or text.
  3. Always question uninvited approaches in case it's a scam. Instead, contact the company directly using a known email or phone number.
Area of expertise:
Personal banking
Tags:
Personal Finance

Take Five To Stop Fraud

Take Five is a national campaign that offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud.

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