just a little question :)

[Rosie*]

Hiii guys.

i booked my holiday at the beging off december for next year with a company but then a week later i found out a was pregnant. so i goes to cancell it and they said i have to pay £200 pound more. But then they said i can change the date for £35 per person to change dates. Do you think that if i go in october that the baby will be to young at just 3months to go away?? i really dont know what to doo!!! xxx

[dksbbs]

It looks like you paid a low deposit scheme hence the reason they are asking for more money.

Does your insurance not cover you for pregnancy, you may be able to get your money back through that.

Is a 3 month old too young to go on holiday? I would say no, they will be old enough, you just need to adapt, at that age they will sleep plenty enabling you to enjoy meals while they are fast a sleep next to you in their buggy.

Dave


p.s. Congratulations by the way.

[Rosie*]

thanks

nope im really bad and always leave the insurance to the last minute i will learn from that haha!!
I just dont think i could live without icmeler for a year!!!

xx

[JT]

Too late now but if you had booked your holiday through us then you wouldn't pay anymore.

Your deposit would have been on hold for later inthe year or even the year after

[Rami Off Work]

It looks like you paid a low deposit scheme hence the reason they are asking for more money.

paid a low deposit scheme

I have a small question of my own here:

low deposit ? - Deposit is money paid to secure your booking, usually not refundable. In this low "deposit scheme" your booking is secured and also understand that its definitely not refundable...but you can not just cancel it and expect to loose just the deposit, you will loose much more, may be more than what you would have lost if you had just paid a "normal deposit"??

In this case, "low deposit scheme" is more like a deposit paid in installments..?? There is no such thing as LOW as far as I can see...wow

I was always wondering how they came out bursting ads with only 25 quid deposit etc!! not knowing they had locked in your other 200 for a date in the future to receive...

All of the above are based on my assumptions so please someone tell me I am right, or wrong...thanks

[Rosie*]

Well the company i booked with was the cheapest deposit i could find but, they didnt say when i booked it that it was a ''low'' deposit it just said that i had to pay the balance like 12 weeks before we went. i knew we wasnt going to get a refund but wasnt expecting to pay more money...

[JonnyH]

Well the company i booked with was the cheapest deposit i could find but, they didnt say when i booked it that it was a ''low'' deposit it just said that i had to pay the balance like 12 weeks before we went. i knew we wasnt going to get a refund but wasnt expecting to pay more money...

If thats the case, then double check on the terms and conditions of your booking if you can find them. If it doesn't state that this 200 pound is part of the deposit then you may not have to pay it.

They should clearly state in their booking terms and conditions or there deposit conditions if there is another amount to their deposits. If there isn't any I would be 99.9% certain you wouldn't have to because thats the only way they can legally prove you have to pay it! But from time to time we all just ignore looking at the terms and conditions.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

[Rami Off Work]

having it in fine print is also not enough, they must have your signature or some sort of consent to such arrangement. They obvioulsy have your card details and preauthorized this payment from your card to make such statement about having to pay another 200 quid, otherwise, there is no way of making you pay this extra cost.

If this is the case, this would show us that there is no such thing as Low Deposit option!, this would clearly be called as Deposit in installments.

Not a very bad idea looking from the merchants point of view to create demand and awareness however, the consumer here should be made well aware that neither the initial installment of payment nor the next one already preauthorized for will be refunded.

Its simply a trick from what I can tell.. kind of makes me disappointed because we have had people complaining to us for the 1/3 deposit we ask or some asking to pay a lower deposit and so on... but we never changed our policy, yet if this sort of promotion that people are looking for, then we may as well implement it for 2011...

Low Deposit Holidays for 2011 - 20 GBP does it
lol

[Annemc]

I have just been reading this post. I thought a low deposit was to attract customers to book with a particular company. The deposit would secure the holiday at the price advertised. I think the £200.00 is more likely to be a cancellation fee than anything else and is probably written in the fine print which as we all know very few of us bother to read.

[majie]

Rami, I once booked a holiday through a low deposit scheme and in my experience you are right. It was, as you say, a deposit in installments. we paid the low amount, then the balance of a standard deposit would have had to be paid should we cancel. It is a while ago now, but i am pretty sure we paid low deposit, balance of deposit then balance of holiday in that order. It is simply another way of spreading the cost.
Obviously I have no idea what has happened in Rosies case, this is only a comment on the low deposit scheme.

[Rami Off Work]

Annemc,

You pay a low deposit of 10 quid...nice...your balance is 400 quid.... all god so far

what happens when and if you want to cancel this arrangement? do you only loose your 10 quid?

You dont care because you dont plan to cancel..so its a good deal to secure a booking for 10 quid...I aggree...

If for some reason, you want to cancel, you have to pay 200 to get out of the deal as to 400 you promised...sounds a like a good deal to me as an agent only if you knew though...

ICR: I dont like fine print and will not back it up in any way...the good guys will always win....at the end

[andytaj]

Hi Rosie,

Congratulations on the baby.

It seems this is a lesson learned the hard way. If you book your holiday in a travel agents shop, you have the perfect opportunity to ask these questions.

We have experience of this from last January, when we booked our holiday. One of our party had work commitments that may have forced him to cancel, so we made sure we were aware of any cancellation charges and/or costs of changing the names on our booking, should he cancel and another of my sons friends came in his place.

As it was, he was able to come and we had a great time.

Just remember, although you may not plan to cancel, there may always be a chance that something untoward can happen. So it is being wise after the event, I know, but who wants to give a travel company a few hundred quid for a holiday they may not be able to take?

As regards travel insurance, many bank accounts have travel insurance included these days. We always use our accounts insurance as it is cheaper and more comprehensive than the likes of T******, TC, or FC.

I hope you have some success with your travel agent, if not, then I'm sure the little one will be fine when you go.


Happy New Year

Andy.

[dksbbs]

Rami,

There appears to be two types of low deposit scheme,

The first is the low deposit paid at the time of booking with the remainder of the deposit paid 8 weeks later and then the final balance 8-12 weeks before departure. This seems to cause no issues as people are made aware that a further payment is due.

The second one which causes a high number of complaints on Holiday Truths in the complaints forum is where a lot of people when booking are not told they are paying a low deposit, and as the remainder of the deposit is due with the final payment 8-12 weeks before departure it's not obvious, you need to read the full Terms and Conditions of the booking contract which most people rarely do to ensure what type of deposit you have paid. This type of low deposit seems to be offered by some of the high street travel agents and not the big TO's themselves. In case of cancellation you are still liable for the remaining deposit which surprises many.

Dave

[Rosie*]

I paid £75 per person as a deposit and all they said was that i had to pay the rest off the balance 12 weeks before i go..

[salford_steve]

I have never had any problems paying a deposite. I usually pay a small deposite, then the rest is automaticly taken off my card 2 weeks before I go, or I can log on myself and pay the remainder earlier if I want to.

Steve

[Rami Off Work]

Hmm I understand Dave. No wonder people complain about it.. i would be the first in line...
***
You will not have a problem with any sort of deposit scheme IF you go on your holidays. The issue or the question raised here was what happens IF you are not able to go and want to cancel.

[JonnyH]

I paid £75 per person as a deposit and all they said was that i had to pay the rest off the balance 12 weeks before i go..

As far as I know then you shouldn't have to pay any extra. I thought you would just lose your deposit..

[Dancing Lucy]

Congrats on the baby, we went to Icmeler last August with my daughter and her family their baby was 3.5 months old and even though it was very hot he was fine we kept him covered and everyone made a big fuss of him if you go October it will be much cooler so you will be okay all the best

[dksbbs]

You will not have a problem with any sort of deposit scheme IF you go on your holidays. The issue or the question raised here was what happens IF you are not able to go and want to cancel.

I completely agree.

Dave