Refunds on the ABTA Scheme

An overview of refunds specific to the ABTA scheme.

There are two distinct phases in the Travel Ledger platform as part of the ABTA scheme:

1). Collection from any debtors

2). Disbursement to creditors

Process Timing Overview

Sellers are able to load bookings into the platform at any time between Thursday and Monday at 9.59am, sellers can load outside of these terms, however it is worth noting that those bookings will enter a later collection date to allow buyers sufficient time to review them.

Buyers are able to review the bookings from 10am on Monday until 3.59 pm on Wednesday. Again, buyers can review bookings at any other time if a seller has loaded early for example,

however these are the times that work with the collection dates as settlement starts at the collection data which is Wednesday at 4pm.

From there, the direct debit collection is executed on Friday, funds are cleared and disbursed the following Wednesday, before being received by the creditors on the Friday.

Example Scenarios

1). No Refunds

Seller A has committed 3 bookings to Buyer 1, if Buyer 1 accepts all three of these bookings, none of which are refunds, they will then owe Seller one Limited £300 on collection day.

2). Refunds - Nett Positive

Seller B committed 3 bookings to Buyer 2, two positive amounts and one refund. These bookings total £140 leaving our buyer as a debtor still, owing Seller Two limited £140 on collection day.

3). Refund - Nett Negative

Seller C committed 3 bookings to Buyer 3, one positive amount and two refunds. These bookings total minus £100. This leaves our buyer as a creditor. Seller C therefore owes Buyer 3 £100 which will be collected on the Wednesday collection day and disbursed back to the buyer the following Friday.

Summary

In summary, the refund process has changed to make sure funds for refunds are always available and “clear”​.

​If a Buyer is in overall Debit​, the amounts are deducted and only the difference is collected​ from the Buyer.

​If a Buyer is in overall Credit​, the difference is first collected from the Seller and the Buyer is refunded when all disbursements take place.