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Timeshare Consumers Association

 

* * WARNING * * If your cash back claim is rejected and you are invited to pay a further sum for "another try" OR You are cold called with a request for payment of "tax" just before your claim becomes due.  Or the "town hall" needs another payment for some reason.  * * DON'T * *  It's yet another scam !

 

"Cash-Back" schemes are now a major "enticement" to encourage the purchase of membership of a Holiday or Travel Club.

The salesman will promise that you will get all your money back in a few years time. Sometimes he actually says that the payback is "guaranteed". This promise is often enough to entice purchasers to sign a contract and hand over their money (and sometimes ownership of a timeshare) in order to get a very large payment sometime in the future. We have heard of purchasers paying £10,000 by credit card and handing over ownership of two weeks of timeshare (only worth £2,000 in the market) on the promise of "£24,000 guaranteed payment in just over four years"

But, when the terms and conditions of the cash-back scheme eventually arrive - long after you have paid all the money - they usually say in the small print "We do not guarantee to repay the full sum or any amount whatsoever".

The salesman has lied to you.

The TCA have not heard of a single consumer who has received the amount promised by the salesman.

How the promoters of cashback schemes explain the operation of their schemes:

• 10% of the money (cash element only, not any trade-in value) is put into an investment account.
• The purchaser must complete the "Registration" form exactly as the purchase contract – the slightest error (spelling mistake etc.) and it will be rejected. Applicants will not be told that their registration has been rejected.
• When the time comes to claim the cashback the claim form must also be completed exactly as the purchase contract. Otherwise it also will be rejected
• The cashback promoters estimate that only 10% of applicants will qualify for a payment – the amount of the actual payment being the number of qualifying applicants divided into the investment account (for the relevant period).

Further twists to the scam:-

• Having received a rejection  from the cash back operator, claimants are invited to pay a further sum into the cash back scheme (usually 11% of the original purchase price) to have a second chance at getting all their money back.

• Claimants  are called and told that the lawyers have the money ready to send to but  you have to pay tax - usually 12.5% - to allow the payment to you to clear.

If you believe either of these two claims, you will be even poorer!

How to try to get your money back under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 if you paid by a UK issued credit card.

You may only make a claim under S75 of the Consumer Credit Act if you paid more than £100 pounds by personal credit card (company credit cards, debit and charge cards do not qualify). You should be able to claim for ALL the money paid, irrespective of the form of payment.

Your claim will be against the company that issued the card that you used to make the purchase to which the cash back scheme related. It is important that the agent who provided the cash back "certificate" was the same business that took the money from your card  but  it does not matter that you no longer use that card

You should then write to the credit card company by Recorded Delivery  as follows:-

a. We signed a purchase agreement on .... [date] - copy enclosed.

b. We were told that ....... [insert what you were told in respect of getting money from the cash back scheme] . The sales people usually say that the full amount on the certificate  is "guaranteed"

c. When we received the terms and conditions of the scheme there was no guarantee of any payment, let alone ALL the money.

This is misrepresentation by the agent.

A questionnaire is available for printing or downloading at cashback.doc (Word).

The current cashback schemes we are most interested in are operated by:

• Reclaim Ltd
• Retrieve Ltd
• Hyprafund
• Sovereign Gold Trust (Belmar Investments Ltd)
• Masterton Ltd
• Masterton International Ltd
• Masterton (Continental) Ltd
• All State Acceptances Inc

And we would like to hear from ANYBODY who has actually received ANY money back from ANY cash back scheme.

Please contact us with any information..

June 2007