Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has issued a passport warning to all adults in the UK. He's warned that people risk losing all of the money they have paid for their holidays if they're not properly prepared.
The Money Saving Expert founder appeared on This Morning today to answer caller's financial questions. A caller said that due to a three month delay on getting a passport, their family are going to lose £2,600 from a holiday which they were due to go on tomorrow.
She asked if there was any way they could be compensated for the losses. Sadly, Martin didn't have much good news for her.
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Martin said: "It is very difficult and I haven't really got an answer, but let me talk you through it. The first thing to say is with your holiday company did you have any cancellation rights?
"If you don't I'm afraid you have no rights with the holiday company. It's a bit like you've entered a tennis tournament and you've not got a racket - you've still entered it, it's not their fault.
"I'm afraid it's the same with the holiday firm and no passport. You have no legal right, but I would always call them up and speak to them really politely to see if they can do anything. Can they change the date, give you some form of cancellation or can they give you vouchers?
"Remembering that you have no right, anything they offer you is better than nothing. So they might be nice and say we will give you vouchers so then you say 'thank you very much'."
He said travellers should still try their luck and there were a few other avenues to try. However, it was unlikely that they would get the full value of their holiday back, says the ECHO.
He said: "You can call your travel insurance and I would call your travel insurance. But, many travel insurers won't cover this. But call them and just see.
"After that, there really isn't very much left. If you paid for a fast track passport from the passport office, there is a chance you'd be owed compensation from it in certain circumstances. I doubt it will cover your whole holiday but if you paid for it to be extradited to get a quick passport, you might be entitled to little bits of cash."
Martin suggested that the best thing to do would be to act early and cancel the holiday. He said: "My final suggestion would be if you paid a small deposit and it looks like the holiday isn't happening and you have no other options then just cancel it. Take the hit on the deposit and don't pay the rest if you think you're not likely to go because of the passport delays."
