Reduced Deposits - To Pay or Not to Pay

My friend has booked a cruise with one of the popular online travel agencies. They were running an offer where you paid a reduced deposit, with the remainder of the full cruise line deposit amount due within 8 weeks of him making the booking.

5 weeks in and due to a family wedding being announced out of the blue (Shotgun lol) he now has to cancel. He assumes that the agency will tell him that he needs to pay the full deposit amount in order to cancel (an additional £298) but he thinks that if he refuses, they won't be able to chase him for the money and won't pursue the matter legally, due to that costing more than the lost additional deposit. His documents mention that he needed to pay the additional deposit within the 8 weeks, but doesn't go in to any details on the repercussions of not paying it.

Now, putting the moral question to one side please and focusing on just the financial/legal aspect of this situation, what do you guys and gals out there in CC Land think will happen to my mate if he refuses to pay the additional deposit amount. Will they huff & puff? Will they send letters threatening legal action or refer to debt collection company? Will they just write it off?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Mark

Presuming the deposit was paid by credit card, the cruise line already has his card details and might well simply charge his card with the balance - no fresh sight of the card or card-holder's permission needed.

That would turn the whole thing round - they would have the money and he would have to chase them, or more likely his card issuer, to try to get it back.

We were recently in that situation, altho right was on our side...........

For a road trip in the US in May we booked flights+car with BA because it was better value than booking separately. BA's car rental voucher included all mandatory fees (airport tax, sales tax, state tax, energy recovery fee, vehicle recovery coup, transportation fee, etc etc etc ad infinitum). When we collected the car we declined all the myriad upgrades and optional extras that Avis :mad: tried to sell us, but they wanted to debit another £130+, which they said was "the difference between the value of the BA voucher and their total fees" No other explanation, and the additional amount didn't tally with any of the fees. Despite our protestations the money was taken from our card without our permission.

When we got home we disputed that extra cost with our credit card issuer (they froze the payment pending investigation) and with BA.

Eventually BA got Avis :mad: to admit it was a "rates error" and we were refunded this week.

A whole lot of effort and grief - never again will we book a car as part of a package, and never again will we rent from Avis :mad: (a glance thro Avis :mad: reviews showed that this is all-too-common with them).

If your friend's contract with the cruise line commits him to cough-up the deposit balance then should the cruise line simply do the same as Avis :mad: he's onto a loser.

JB :)

Presuming the deposit was paid by credit card, the cruise line already has his card details and might well simply charge his card with the balance - no fresh sight of the card or card-holder's permission needed.

That would turn the whole thing round - they would have the money and he would have to chase them, or more likely his card issuer, to try to get it back.

 

We were recently in that situation, altho right was on our side...........

For a road trip in the US in May we booked flights+car with BA because it was better value than booking separately. BA's car rental voucher included all mandatory fees (airport tax, sales tax, state tax, energy recovery fee, vehicle recovery coup, transportation fee, etc etc etc ad infinitum). When we collected the car we declined all the myriad upgrades and optional extras that Avis :mad: tried to sell us, but they wanted to debit another £130+, which they said was "the difference between the value of the BA voucher and their total fees" No other explanation, and the additional amount didn't tally with any of the fees. Despite our protestations the money was taken from our card without our permission.

When we got home we disputed that extra cost with our credit card issuer (they froze the payment pending investigation) and with BA.

Eventually BA got Avis :mad: to admit it was a "rates error" and we were refunded this week.

A whole lot of effort and grief - never again will we book a car as part of a package, and never again will we rent from Avis :mad: (a glance thro Avis :mad: reviews showed that this is all-too-common with them).

 

If your friend's contract with the cruise line commits him to cough-up the deposit balance then should the cruise line simply do the same as Avis :mad: he's onto a loser.

 

JB :)

Thanks for the reply.

I'd be a bit doubtful if in these days of PCI compliance etc, that companies still stored CC details and could apply a charge, even if morally they should, the legal stance may be a bit cloudier.

Mark

Thanks for the reply.

 

I'd be a bit doubtful if in these days of PCI compliance etc, that companies still stored CC details and could apply a charge, even if morally they should, the legal stance may be a bit cloudier.

 

Mark

Applying a charge for some totally different matter I'm pretty sure you're right.

But this is all about the one contract for a cruise fare, same as mine was the one contract for a car rental.

Legal stances are always cloudy :confused:

That's what makes solicitors wealthy :(

JB :)