How your money is protected

First, the part nobody mentions

If you are in the UK you may know ATOL and ABTA. Those schemes only cover companies based in the UK, so they do not apply to us, and any New Zealand company that implies otherwise is being loose with the truth. The same goes for the USTOA program in the United States. Rather than borrow badges that do not apply, this page explains the protections that actually do.

Where your money actually goes

Your deposit does one job: it confirms your bookings with our New Zealand operating partner, the Qualmark Gold certified operator that contracts the hotels, activity operators and transport on your itinerary. You pay for a trip, and the trip gets booked.

Just as important is what you have not paid. The real risk with any travel company is handing over the full price months in advance. Here you pay nothing to enquire, nothing until your quote is confirmed in writing, and never more than a 20% deposit until the balance falls due 70 days before travel. Until then, most of your money is still in your account, not anyone else’s.

Who actually delivers your trip

Every itinerary we sell is operated on the ground by a Qualmark Gold certified New Zealand tour operator. Qualmark is Tourism New Zealand’s official quality assurance mark, Gold is its highest grading, and it involves independent assessment, not self certification. Your bookings sit with an established operations team with decades of supplier relationships, not with a website.

You only ever risk a deposit, and a small one

Nothing is charged to enquire, receive a quote or make changes. When you confirm, a 20% deposit per person (minimum NZ$250) secures your booking. The balance is not due until 70 days before travel, with the exact date stated on your quote before you pay anything; book inside 70 days and the trip is payable in full at confirmation. Once your bookings are confirmed the deposit is non-refundable, which is exactly why the insurance section below says what it says. Your exposure before we have proven ourselves is one fifth of your trip price, not the whole amount.

Protection you control: pay by card

If you are in the UK and pay any part of your booking by credit card, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your card issuer jointly liable for purchases costing between £100 and £30,000. In practice, paying even part of the cost on a UK credit card gives you a statutory route to recover the full booking value from your card issuer if the services you paid for are not provided.

If you are in the United States, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives credit card payments dispute rights, and most cards in Australia, Singapore and elsewhere carry chargeback protections through Visa and Mastercard scheme rules. This is why we accept card payment for deposits and never ask you to wire money as the only option: a card payment keeps your own bank on your side of the table.

Travel insurance, from the day you pay

Take out comprehensive travel insurance on the day you pay your deposit, not the week before you fly. Insurance taken at deposit time covers cancellation from that day forward, which means it is protecting the money you have just paid, as well as the trip itself. We recommend arranging it in your home country, and it is a condition of travel for most of our supplier partners.

Ask us anything about this

If any of this is unclear, or you want to verify something before booking, email hello@silverferntravel.com and ask. Direct questions about money are the ones we most like answering, because they are the ones that matter. Our full booking conditions set out payment, changes and cancellation in detail.