A travel agency asked you to send money to us
That is normal, and it is meant to protect you. This page explains who we are, what happens to your money, how to check the details you were given are genuine, and how you get it back if the ticket never appears.
Who we are
OnwardTrust is an escrow service for travel. The travel agency you are booking with does not receive your money when you pay. We receive it and hold it.
The agency is told the money has arrived, so they can go ahead and issue your ticket. They cannot take it. We only pay them once we have checked that a real, valid ticket exists for your booking.
If no valid ticket appears, you get your money back. That is the default. You do not have to argue for it, and the agency does not have to agree to it.
What happens to your money
How to be sure the details are genuine
Take the bank details from the OnwardTrust payment page itself, on a web address that begins https://onwardtrust.com/ — not from an email, a PDF, a chat message or a phone call. If someone sends you different bank details and says ours have changed, do not send the money. Contact us first.
The recipient name always begins with OnwardTrust, and matches what is shown on the payment page. If the recipient on the details you were given is a person's name, or a company you have never heard of, stop.
Always include the reference exactly as shown. It is the only thing that links your transfer to your booking. Without it your money sits unidentified in a queue and your booking can expire while we work out whose it is.
We will never ask you for a card number, a password, a one-time code, or remote access to your computer. We will never ask you to send money to a different account to "release" or "verify" a payment.
Getting your money back
You are refunded to the account the money came from. The main reasons a refund happens:
| What happened | What we do |
|---|---|
| No ticket was issued in time | Full refund, automatically. You do not need to ask. |
| The ticket does not match your booking | Treated as no ticket. Full refund. |
| Your seat was gone by the time the money arrived | Full refund. We do not hold money against a booking that no longer exists. |
| You want to cancel a ticket that was correctly issued | The agency's cancellation terms apply — that part is between you and them. But they can only have been paid if a real ticket existed. |
How long things take
Payments are matched by a person, during business hours, not by an automatic bank feed. If you have sent a transfer and nothing has changed yet, that gap is normal and it is not a sign anything is wrong. We email you when your money arrives, so you do not need to keep the page open.
If a day has passed and you have heard nothing, tell us. Sending from a different account, or forgetting the reference, are the two usual causes and we can still find your payment.
Still uneasy?
That is a reasonable way to feel about wiring money to a name you met ten minutes ago. Ask us anything before you send it — we would much rather answer than have you send money you are unsure about.
Contact usOne thing we will not overstate: your money is held on accounts that OnwardTrust Sarl controls. It is not held in a segregated legal trust, and we are not a bank. What is true is exactly what is described above — we hold it, the agency cannot take it, and you get it back if no valid ticket appears.