Completely messed up!

[Idio7]

DH and I booked a holiday for this year with £1pp deposit. They had an offer on for 2027 with the same £1pp deposit but an additional deposit due this month. We booked it.

We've had a few unexpected things to pay out for that have eaten into our savings (dog surgery, car issue etc).
So I contacted our TA to cancel the holiday for 2027 before the remaining balance is due. But they've said we have to pay it, even if we want to cancel. (After 2 hours in a call queue)

We're already short a bit for the balance of our holiday for this year but had a plan to make a bit more cash over the next few months (overtime, selling stuff).

I can't believe I didn't spot the T&C's about the deposit. I'm gutted that I've tied us in to these 2 holidays and we're going to have 2 years of saving to get back our buffer. I feel sick and so annoyed with myself.

I’m going to go against the general vibe here and say pay for it, go on it and enjoy it! You only live once. I’ve never regretted doing something like buying something I really wanted or going on holiday, but when I’m old I’m sure I’d regret NOT doing these things. Can you perhaps get an interest free credit card for a period of time and pay it off like that? Please don’t feel sick about it, just go and have a good time x

I actually asked a couple of questions!?

@Northernladdette i will re phrase my answer
you suggested just don’t pay the money due - why would you say that -would you say the same if it was a household bill ???
awful advice , as a TA there is ways and means to collect the outstanding money like all debt can be

I think we need to read the terms and conditions

You owe them the deposit, that really should not be a surprise. If you don’t want to continue with your booking try to pay the deposit and cut your loses then cancel.

Speak to ABTA.

Just don’t pay it, this happened to me. I cancelled my card so they couldn’t take the money. They never contacted me again I just got a cancellation email. It won’t affect your credit rating whoever said that is mental. It’s a bloody holiday not a mortgage

I suggest you re-read my post, and to save you trawling through, here it is:

“If you most definitely do not have the
money to pay, what’s the worst can happen? Will they take you to court?”

I suggested a couple of questions the OP should be asking, and finding out the answers to, if she finds herself in a situation where she doesn’t have the money to pay for her holiday 🙄

@hangxiety yeah it’s
not a mortgage but
money a travel agency need to collect
especially if it’s a local independent
but yeah let’s adopt
your attitude and not pay
so helpful to a local
business

You cant issue a ccj without going to court. If you go to court a judge might even rule against the terms if they are deemed unfair or not online with consumer law.

Theres only one way which is to go to court. The other ways have no legal authority.

Not heard this one before.

Hi op. I’m sorry to hear that it’s a struggle to save money for your holiday. Planning a holiday should be exciting and it’s a shame that your financial situation is making it stressful.
Do you think there’s any way of being more frugal for a while so you could save the money you need for the holiday? Theres a few posts on here with good ideas about saving money, especially on food.

If you do decide to cancel, it is unlikely that anything will bad happen. Depending on the contract you could, in theory, be taken to court for breach of contract but as the travel company would be claiming ‘expectation loss’ and not an actual loss (as they’re free to sell your holiday to someone else) it’s highly unlikely they would succeed so it’s extremely unlikely they would take you to court. So I think you’re safe to cancel, regardless of your contract terms.

I do hope your financial position improves

Obviously the company would have to take you to court.. you might want to look at the TUI website, people who Tui have sent debt collectors to but you can always take the risk if you think your holiday company wont do that

They can send debt collectors. You are under no obligation to pay. If you are taken to court and the court rules against you then you are obliged to pay. When you say obviously, Im not sure which post you're referring to as I replied to two, both of which was hinting that op needs to pay as there are threats of ccjs and as someone else said there are ways to get you to pay. There isn't, and you can't just make a ccj appear on someone's record was the point of my posts.

Well I guess that is why they offer the £1 - to lock people in. Feels a bit scammy to me!

Yes indeed.

Thanks for the replies. I’ve calmed down now and seeing a bit more clearly.

To answer some questions:

• Not TUI. It is a cruise specialist site I've used before.

• The £1 offer has been on in previous years and no additional deposit was required, just balance payment as usual a few months before departure. However, we booked in Oct and the company was taken over in Dec and all the T&Cs pages were updated this month. Wish I’d taken screenshots at time of booking.

• Not paying it was never an option. Worst case scenario was shoving it on a credit card but that made my heart shrivel after not long clearing all our debt.

I spoke to them again and although i am tied into the deposit payment, I can move it to another holiday in 2028 when they release them. So, we are going to keep the holiday for this year and move the 2027 which should ease up the strain i was worried about in the next year.

We’ll have to tighten our belts over the next month to have enough to pay the balance for this year’s holiday. I’ve dug out all DS’ baby items we’d not got around to selling and got them on FB and have got back into Vinted. DH has some overtime pay coming which I’d forgotten about and he’s going to do some more this month.