Martin Lewis
2nd October 2017
If you’re not covered by ATOL protection as your flight isn’t a package holiday, and your travel insurance won’t pay out as you don’t have the rare ‘travel abandonment’ cover; there are three further helpful protections to try.
1. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1979. This says that if you pay for something – or even part-pay – on a credit card and it costs between £100 and £30,000, then the credit card company is jointly liable.
In travel, it only works when you book direct, but that’s fine for those who paid Monarch on a credit card – as long as the cost per flight is over £100. So get in touch with the credit card firm and ask to make a ‘section 75’ claim (and use the name) for any costs not received. There are full templates for doing this on
http://www.mse.me/section75
2. Chargeback. If you paid on a debit card or a credit card (though if over £100 on a credit card use section 75 instead), then there is a less well-known protection called ‘chargeback’.
With this you ask your card provider to do a chargeback, which means it will ask Monarch’s bank for your money back as you have not received the service. While it’s not a legal protection like Section 75, this is a core protection in Visa, Mastercard and American Express’ rules and it can swiftly help people get their money back. In fact, it was this route that we suggested in the Lowcostholidays issue, which got the most success. Again full help on MSE.
3. Paypal. If you paid on paypal, you're generally reliant on its own payment protection scheme. Yet during Lowcostholiday collapse, this worked fine, so get in touch with it.
Full help on ALL monarch issues at
http://www.mse.me/monarchhelp