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Travel Trust Accounts

Is Your Travel Business’ Money Safe?

June 20th 2024
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It’s fair to say that when it comes to business, we sometimes have to put trust in the hands of strangers that profit from assisting us. After all, do you know: is your travel business’ money safe right now? You have financial protection that is approved under the PTRs, sure, but do you know exactly where your money is? If that financial protection provider goes out of business, are you sure your money will be returned to you?  

In most cases, of course, this may be slightly paranoid talking. Is my bank going to steal my money? Probably not. Is that shop keeper going to let me take my Kit Kat home with me after I pay? Yes, of course. But as a business in a high-risk industry like travel, could you lose your money if your bond provider goes bust? Yes.  

It is for exactly this reason that discussions surrounding financial protection and keeping money safe are so alive in travel. All forms of financial protection come with some downsides or risks. But it has come to greater attention over the years that the standard methods we rely on may not be as secure as we want.  

So, what is the problem with financial protection in travel at the moment? 

The two top issues in many of these cases are: 

  1. If this protection provider goes under, they could be taking me down with them; and 
  2. This protection provider is directly profiting from holding my money, how do I know I can trust them?  

After all, we can all admit that trusting a stranger to keep our money safe is a strange position to be in.  

But there is a clear solution to both of these issues (you knew we were building to this, of course). A properly run and catered travel trust account, such as we run at Protected Trust Services (PTS), will ensure your money is safe and allow you to see exactly how safe it is.  

1. If this provider goes under… 

In the heart-breaking case that a travel trust account provider like PTS did go out of business, all monies held would be efficiently returned to the travel business members or their clients.  

This is because our trust account is managed by an independent trustee. While PTS does profit from having members using our trust account and other forms of support, we have no access to the money going in and out of the account. This is all managed by a third-party trustee that has no stake in those monies.  

Meaning, if PTS goes out of business, we can’t take that money with us and your business can continue growing on its own. Any clients that haven’t travelled yet will recieve a refund and nothing will have to come out of your pockets while you find a new travel protection solution.  

2. How do I know I can trust them?  

This is the greatest part about working with independent trustees. Even if we at PTS were twiddling our evil moustaches (which we all have, of course), we don’t have direct access to any money going in or out of the trust account.  

While we manage the system that allows members to see their money safe and consumers to travel with peace of mind, we can’t touch that money. Basically, there’s no benefit to us if something going wrong, because all that money will return to you or your clients.  

That’s right, you don’t even really have to trust us with your money. If you become a member of PTS, that small price that you pay for our services is the only way that we profit: by providing the foundation that your business needs to flourish.  

So, if you’d like to learn more about keeping your money safe with a PTS membership, please get in contact with one of Protected Trust Services’ (PTS) lovely staff members by calling 0207 190 9988. Or, you can visit our member support and travel trust account pages to learn more about how we protect you.