Found it - it was a Money query in The Times so have copied below.
I was going to go on a short break with my then girlfriend, who used my Nationwide credit card to book a holiday for £622 with Haven Holidays for us. Unfortunately we then broke up acrimoniously before the holiday took place.
After our split and before the planned holiday, I phoned Haven to cancel the booking and get a refund. It said the holiday was never in my name because my ex had made the booking in her own name, so the company could not help me. In fact, my name had even been taken off the booking without my knowledge. My ex then went on the holiday with a number of her friends.
I explained the situation to Haven and told it that my credit card had been used, but it said it could not help me any further but to contact my credit card provider. Nationwide also said that it could not help me on this occasion. This seems very unfair — please can you help?
Jill replies
Your ex-girlfriend was very sharp to use her own name as the lead person for the holiday. Even though you paid for the break, this meant you had no control over the booking.
I’m afraid there is nothing that can be done about recouping your money because neither Haven nor Nationwide did anything wrong. Haven adhered to its booking terms and conditions and fulfilled its part of the contract by providing the holiday. Nationwide looked at your complaint twice, from a fraud and Visa dispute standpoint, but could not find a reason to reimburse you.
It said: “We are unable to consider this as a fraud claim because at the time of the booking he was happy to allow his then partner to use the card to make the booking. We can only raise a chargeback claim and challenge the payment if the merchant has done something wrong. He agreed for his girlfriend to use his card to book the holiday and ultimately the holiday was delivered. A Section 75 claim isn’t possible as the contract isn’t in his name and the merchant hasn’t breached the contract as the service was delivered. While we appreciate this isn’t a nice situation for our customer, he allowed his card to be used to buy the holiday and that holiday was used.”
Thank you for raising this issue — it’s a good warning for other readers who might be thinking of letting their nearest but not necessarily dearest use their credit or debit cards. Don’t do it.