Refund offered for Pemberton Music Festival tickets bought on credit cards
Music fans out hundreds of dollars with now worthless Pemberton Music Festival tickets can apply to get their money back, as long as they bought the tickets on a credit card.
Earlier this month, the festival cancelled after it said it was facing a $10 million shortfall.
Vancity says around 200 customers have applied for a refund after the credit union announced it would refund music festival tickets.
'We are supporting clients'
Canada's biggest banks, TD Banking Group, Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal also confirm they will refund tickets that were purchased on their credit cards.
"We are supporting clients affected by this situation," said RBC's AJ Goodman in an email to CBC News about the festival's bankruptcy.
Purchase-protection insurance on major credit cards most often does not extend to things like tickets.
"Well this is a unique circumstance. I actually don't recall any circumstance quite like this," said Vancity's Darwin Sauer. "We didn't want members to take a financial hit for something that was obviously beyond their control.
"It was the right thing to do."
BMO says that would-be festival goers who used their BMO Mastercard to pay for other costs related to the festival, such as parking or camping, can also apply for a refund for those costs.
'This is competition at work'
David Andolfatto says most likely the banks are offering the refunds to protect their market share but also to keep a good relationship with clients.
He teaches economics at SFU and is also vice-president of the research division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
"There's potentially a lot of business to be done that has nothing to do with a credit card," he said. "If they lose you on the credit card ... you're losing the mortgage, the credit line."
He says the festival's bankruptcy and resulting refunds are a good reminder that it's always worthwhile contacting your bank if something goes wrong, even if policies say you aren't protected.
"I think this goes for anything," he said. "I mean so much of human life is governed by relationships that don't abide by formal contractual terms."
