Claiming your money back if your travel company has ceased trading
If you've been affected by your travel provider becoming insolvent, you can make a claim if:
- you paid using your credit or debit card, and
- your payment was made less than 540 days (approximately 18 months) ago, and
- you’re not covered by ABTA, ATOL or a similar financial protection scheme or your travel insurance provider (if any) has confirmed that it won’t cover your claim, or
- you’ve spoken to your travel provider, ABTA, ATOL, a similar financial protection scheme or your travel insurance provider and they’ve directed you to us, as your card issuer, to raise a claim.
The easiest way to do this is by using our claim form in Online Banking.
- Log on to Online Banking
- Click ‘Account services’ tab
- Choose ‘Other services’ in the left-hand side menu
- Scroll down to ‘Debit card services’ or ‘Credit card services’
- Click ‘Make a claim’ and start filling in the form
If you don’t use Online Banking, please contact us
Want to sign up for Online Banking? Read our Online Banking page to learn how.
Please complete the form and upload your supporting documentation.
Once you’ve submitted your form, we’ll:
- send you an email to confirm we’ve received your claim
- take a look at your documents and let you know if we need more information.
Submitting a claim by calling us
Once we’ve taken details of your claim, we’ll send you a disputed transaction form, which you’ll need to sign and return to us enclosing your supporting documents. Once we’ve received everything we need, we’ll be able to raise your claim for you.
Supporting documentation
It’s important that you provide documents to support your claim. If you claim online, you’ll need to upload your documents when you submit your claim. If you call us to make a claim, you’ll need to return the documents to us along with the disputed transaction form that we’ll send to you. Without any supporting documents it may be difficult to assess whether your claim should be successful or not. Please keep the originals for your own records and avoid stapling your documents together or attaching them to the disputed transaction form.
Raising your claim
Once we’ve received your claim and supporting documentation it will be assessed by a case handler and a decision will be made based on the information you’ve provided. If we then raise a claim with your travel provider, we’ll pay the amount you're claiming for back into the account it was paid from. This is done while we await the outcome of your claim and we'll send you a confirmation letter explaining what happens next.
Most claims take up to 45 working days (9 weeks) to complete, however some claims may take longer if, for example, lots of customers are claiming (for example when a larger travel provider becomes insolvent).
Your claim may be unsuccessful. If it is, we’ll explain why.
Payments not made by debit or credit card
If you’ve paid by cash, cheque, or Direct Debit we’re sorry but we can’t raise a claim for you. Please speak to your travel provider, ABTA, ATOL, a similar financial protection scheme or your travel insurer for further guidance on making a claim.
Payments made through payment processors such as PayPal
If you paid your travel company using a payment processor such as PayPal, we can only process claims if you selected to pay using your credit or debit card. If you chose to pay directly from your nominated bank account using your account number and sort code (this will show as ‘DD to PayPal’ on your statement) you’ll need to refer to your travel provider ABTA, ATOL, a similar financial protection scheme or your travel insurer for further guidance on making a claim.
Fraud awareness
Criminals will use a company going into liquidation as a cover story to try and scam you out of your money.
It’s important that you keep your personal, security and card information safe and secure as criminals may target your accounts. They may contact you pretending to be Santander, the police or another organisation and use this information to convince you they’re genuine. Take Five to check that you’re speaking to a genuine person by calling us directly using the number on our website before discussing any details about your account, card or claim.
Criminals will sometimes use a tactic called ‘spoofing’ where they make it look as if their telephone number, email or text is from your bank (or other organisation) – they can even make them appear in the same thread alongside genuine messages. They may ask you to make a payment or share your security details, such as Online Banking passwords or One Time Passcodes (OTPs). These must never be shared with anyone even if they say they’re from Santander.