California consumers should purchase their travel from an agency that participates in California's "Travel Consumer Restitution" program. Your payments are then protected by state law against default, fraud, and mismanagement.
The state of California provides guarantees to Californians who purchase their travel from a registered seller of travel. All travel agencies who sell to Californians are to have a California Seller of Travel (CST) number.
Additionally, if the seller of travel is headquartered in California, or their stock is on a national securities exchange, they also must pay into a restitution fund. This restitution fund protects the California consumer if there is supplier or travel agency default. This is the same type of guarantee that consumers get from their credit card companies.
These laws were enacted to give California consumers confidence in buying from a registered seller of travel who is based in California.
Go to the California Attorney General's website and read about this law. Consumers can verify whether a seller of travel is registered and whether they participate in the restitution fund by clicking here. More information about the law and restitution can be found in the FAQs.
If you live in California and are planning to purchase travel, always ask for the seller's CST number, and verify if the seller of travel participates in the restitution fund.
More information about the restitution fund can be found at the website of the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation (TCRC).
If you live in California, and purchase your travel from a seller of travel that participates with the TCRC, your payments are protected in case of bankruptcy, cessation of operations, insolvency, or failure to provide the travel product.
A seller of travel is any person who sells, provides, furnishes, contracts for, arranges, or advertises that he or she can or may arrange, or has arranged, wholesale or retail, either of the following: (1) air or sea transportation either separately or in conjunction with other travel services; (2) land or water vessel transportation, other than sea carriage, either separately or in conjunction with other travel services if the total charge to the passenger exceeds $300. (Business and Professions Code 17550.1)
Other states may also have licensing/registration requirements. Distinctive Destinations is only registered in California. Our CST number is 2073714-40.
As a result of these legal protection, consumers can comfortably pay for their travel via a check. Distinctive Destinations gladly will accept your check. When you provide a check as payment, you authorize us to use information from the check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from your account, or to process the payment as a check transaction. IF your payment is returned unpaid, you authorize us to collect a fee plus the bank fee charged to the merchant if allowed by state law through electronic fund transfer from your account. These recovery funds are charged by the Federal Automated Recovery System, and are set by state law as follows:
- $10 (NE)
- $20 (CO, CT, HI, ID, IN, NY, PA, UT)
- $25 (AZ, AR, IL, KY, LA, MI, MO, NH, NV, NC, ND, OK, OR, RI, WV)
- $30 (AL, AK, CA, DC, GA, IA, KS, ME, MN, MT, NJ, MN, OH, SC, SD, TN, TX, WI, WY)
- $35 (MD, MA, VA)
- $40 (DE, MS, WA)
- $50 (VT)
