Section 75 and Holiday Bookings: How to Claim When a Travel Company Fails
Your travel operator has collapsed two weeks before departure. You paid £3,400 for a family holiday and received an email saying the company has entered administration. The flights are cancelled. The hotel has no record of your booking. Your money is sitting in an insolvency process that could take months to resolve.
If you paid any part of that on a personal credit card, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may entitle you to a full refund directly from your card provider — without waiting for the administrator.
Quick check: does this apply to you?
- ✓ You paid at least £1 of the booking on a personal credit card
- ✓ The total holiday price was more than £100 and no more than £30,000
- ✓ The company failed, cancelled without refunding, or did not deliver what was booked
- ✓ The problem arose within the last six years (England/Wales) or five years (Scotland)
Not sure? Use the free eligibility checker.
It covers package holidays, flights booked directly, hotels, villa rentals, and tours — whether booked through a UK travel agent or directly with a supplier.
What about ATOL protection?
ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s Licence) covers most UK-sold package holidays and some flight-only bookings. When a company with ATOL protection fails, the Civil Aviation Authority manages refunds and tries to bring home passengers already abroad.
Having ATOL protection does not stop you using Section 75. The two routes work independently. Section 75 is often faster — you deal directly with your bank rather than joining a queue in a CAA process that can take many months. If ATOL later pays out, you would not keep both refunds, but using Section 75 first is entirely legitimate.
If your booking is not ATOL-protected — an independent hotel, a villa rental through a small agency, a flight booked directly with an airline — Section 75 may be your only meaningful protection.
What to gather before you write to your bank
Collect these before writing to your bank
- ▪Booking confirmation showing your name, total price, and what was included
- ▪Credit card statement showing every payment to the travel company
- ▪Email or letter confirming the cancellation or administration
- ▪Administrator’s name and announcement — search “[company name] administrator”
- ▪If you were abroad: receipts for any emergency accommodation or flights you paid yourself
If you paid in stages, gather statements for all payments. Your claim covers the full contract value — not just the last payment.
What to say if your bank pushes back
Banks handling holiday Section 75 claims have a small repertoire of rejection lines. Here is what they say and how to respond.
Your bank may say
”The purchase was overseas, so Section 75 does not apply.”
This is wrong. The House of Lords confirmed in OFT v Lloyds TSB Bank plc [2007] UKHL 48 that Section 75 applies to overseas purchases made on a UK-regulated credit card. The supplier’s location is irrelevant.
Your bank may say
”You are outside the dispute window.”
Banks sometimes apply the 120-day chargeback window to Section 75 claims. These are legally distinct processes. Write back stating clearly that your claim is under Section 75(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, not a chargeback request — and that the card scheme dispute window does not apply. Section 75 carries a six-year limitation period under the Limitation Act 1980.
Your bank may say
”ATOL covers this — it’s not our responsibility.”
ATOL and Section 75 are not mutually exclusive. The existence of ATOL protection does not extinguish your statutory right under the Consumer Credit Act. The bank’s joint liability exists independently of any other scheme.
Your bank may say
”We need to wait for a response from the supplier first.”
Section 75 imposes joint and several liability. You are not required to exhaust your options against the supplier before claiming against the card provider. That is the point of the protection.
If your bank still refuses
A refusal is not the end. You can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) within six months of the bank’s final response letter. The FOS is free, its decisions are binding on the bank, and it upholds a significant number of Section 75 complaints that banks initially reject.
See our Financial Ombudsman escalation guide for what to include and how to structure the referral.
What to do now
Check you qualify — use the free eligibility checker if you are not certain, or review the conditions above.
Gather your evidence — booking confirmation, credit card statements, and any communication about the failure. Do this before contacting the bank.
Write to your card provider’s disputes team — by email or recorded post, citing Section 75(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Do not phone; you need a paper trail.
Ready to write the claim?
The Section 75 Claim Pack is a plain-English PDF workbook with a template letter citing the correct legislation, an evidence checklist, rebuttal templates for the most common rejection reasons including the overseas objection and the ATOL deflection, and a Financial Ombudsman complaint letter. £6.99, no subscription.
Get the claim pack — £6.99Last updated: 2 May 2026. See also our complete Section 75 guide and our Section 75 vs chargeback guide.