California Seller of Travel Bond
California doesn't assign every seller of travel a bond amount the way most states do — it hands you a choice. Under B&P Code §17550.15, the default is a 100% trust account for every dollar you collect from a passenger. Subsection (k) lets you substitute a surety bond sized to that same trust obligation instead, filed with the Attorney General before you advertise. A third population is routed into the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund (TCRF) and pays assessments instead of holding either. Which path applies to you — and whether you can even choose — is the real question this page answers.
Bond sizing
Floats
tracks your outstanding trust obligation, §17550.11
Registration fee
$100
per business location, §17550.20
Obligee
CA AG
Seller of Travel Program, oag.ca.gov
- Who requires it: The California Attorney General, under Business & Professions Code § 17550, for a Seller of Travel (CST) registration.
- Amount: A $25,000 surety bond, or an equivalent trust account ($25,000 minimum), or a $25,000 contribution to the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund (TCRF).
- Timing: Same-day submission; most quotes within one business day.
The decision tree the Attorney General actually runs
The Attorney General's own Seller of Travel Program FAQ puts it plainly: some sellers of travel “are required to deposit all payments received into a trust account or to obtain a surety bond,” while “others are not required to maintain either a trust account or post a bond,” and separately, some “participate in the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund” while others don't. That is not a footnote — it is the entire structure of California seller-of-travel compliance, and most guides skip straight past it to a bond amount that doesn't exist as a single fixed figure.
Path 1 — Trust account
The statutory default under §17550.15. 100% of passenger funds locked until you pay the carrier or provider.
Path 2 — Surety bond
An elected substitute under §17550.15(k), sized to the trust obligation under §17550.11, filed before you advertise.
Path 3 — TCRF
Assessments paid to the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation instead of holding an individual trust or bond.
Which path you land on depends on how your business is structured, whether you've been assigned into the restitution-fund population, and whether you actively file the substitution paperwork. Get that filing wrong — or skip it — and the Attorney General doesn't see “chose the bond instead,” it sees a trust account that was never opened.
Who counts as a seller of travel under §17550.1 — and the out-of-state trap
B&P Code §17550.1 defines a “seller of travel” broadly: anyone who sells, arranges, or advertises that they can arrange wholesale or retail air, sea, or certain land/water transportation where total passenger charges exceed $300. The statute exempts air carriers and ocean carriers directly, hotels and motels arranging complimentary transportation for their own registered guests, and motor, rail, or water vessel operators already holding the required government operating permits or licenses.
None of that turns on where your office sits. The Attorney General's Seller of Travel Program applies to anyone marketing, selling, or arranging travel for a California resident — an agency headquartered in Nevada, Arizona, or anywhere else that books California customers is in scope the same as a storefront in Sacramento. Out-of-state sellers still walk the same trust/bond/TCRF decision once they're in.
Official California Requirements
"Some sellers of travel are required to deposit all payments received into a trust account or to obtain a surety bond. Others are not required to maintain either a trust account or post a bond. Some sellers of travel may participate in the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund while others may not."California Attorney General, Seller of Travel Program (FAQ) • Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §17550.1 (definitions), §17550.15 (financial security)
Path 1 — the trust account is the default, not an option
Absent an approved substitute, §17550.15 requires a seller of travel to deposit 100 percent of all sums received from a passenger for air or sea transportation, or for travel services, directly into a trust account at a federally insured bank, savings and loan, or credit union — along with any refunds carriers or providers send back. You don't need a separate account per transaction, but you cannot encumber the corpus of the account in any manner, and withdrawals are limited to paying the carrier for transportation or the provider for the services the passenger actually purchased.
For a seller running meaningful transaction volume, that means customer prepayments sit locked and unavailable as working capital until the trip is delivered and the funds are properly disbursed — which is exactly why §17550.15(k) exists as an out.
Path 2 — a bond sized to your trust obligation, not a flat category amount
§17550.15(k) reads: “In lieu of the trust account required by this article, an adequate bond as set forth in Section 17550.11 may be maintained by the seller of travel.” §17550.11 then defines “adequate” as a bond “executed by an admitted surety insurer in an amount at all times no less than” the amount that would otherwise be required in the §17550.15 trust account — in other words, the bond has to keep pace with your outstanding customer prepayments, not sit at a fixed penal sum assigned at registration.
Filed before you advertise
The substitution has to be on file with the Attorney General before you offer travel for sale — not something you can retrofit after a complaint arrives.
30-day cancellation notice
Your surety must give both you and the Attorney General 30 days' written notice before cancelling or terminating the bond — it can't simply lapse silently.
Claims survive cancellation
Losses that arose while the bond was active remain claimable even after it's cancelled — cancelling doesn't erase exposure for bookings taken before the notice period ran.
Capped at what the passenger paid
A passenger can't recover more through the bond than what they actually paid your agency — it backstops the prepayment, not consequential losses beyond it.
Official California Requirements
""Adequate bond" means a bond executed by an admitted surety insurer in an amount at all times no less than... the amount required to be held in a trust account pursuant to Section 17550.15. In lieu of the trust account required by this article, an adequate bond as set forth in Section 17550.11 may be maintained by the seller of travel."California Business & Professions Code • Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§17550.11, 17550.15(k)
Path 3 — assessments to the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund
§17550.35 defines the “restitution corporation” as the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation (TCRC), which administers the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund. Instead of holding an individual trust account or bond, TCRF participants pay annual assessments under §§17550.43–.44 — covering both operations and the restitution fund itself — plus a late fee of $5 per day, up to a maximum of $500, for any overdue assessment. Critically, §17550.20(a)(3) blocks your registration renewal outright until any outstanding TCRC assessments are paid in full — a lapsed assessment doesn't just cost money, it stops your registration from renewing at all.
For sellers routed into the fund, this replaces the trust-account/bond choice entirely — the TCRF population isn't deciding between Path 1 and Path 2, they're on a third track with its own assessment schedule and its own renewal trigger.
All three paths, side by side
Before you file anything with the Attorney General, confirm which of these three you're actually choosing between — or whether the choice has already been made for you:
California seller of travel — financial security paths
Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§17550.11, 17550.15, 17550.20, 17550.35, 17550.43–.44
| Path | Governing section | How it works | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust account | §17550.15 | 100% of passenger payments held in a federally insured account; withdrawals limited to paying the carrier or travel provider | Sellers who want the strongest consumer-facing protection and can absorb the accounting overhead |
| Surety bond | §17550.11 + §17550.15(k) | Bond amount floats with the trust obligation you'd otherwise hold; filed with the AG before you advertise; admitted surety only | Sellers who want customer prepayments available as working capital instead of locked in trust |
| TCRF participation | §17550.20 / §17550.35 / §§17550.43–.44 | Pay annual assessments to the Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation; renewal is blocked until assessments are current | Sellers routed into the restitution-fund model instead of an individual trust or bond obligation |
Bond and trust amounts are not fixed penal sums — both track the seller's outstanding passenger-payment obligation. Confirm your assigned path with the Attorney General's Seller of Travel Program before filing.
Source: Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§17550.11, 17550.15, 17550.20, 17550.35, 17550.43–.44; oag.ca.gov/travel
Know you're on the bond path? Get your §17550.11 bond quote sized to your trust obligation.
Get Your QuoteRegistration mechanics, apart from which security path you're on
Whichever of the three paths applies, the registration process itself runs on the same clock and fee schedule under §17550.20:
File at least 10 days before selling
Registration must be filed “not less than 10 days before doing business in this state.”
$100 per business location
The filing fee is charged per location from which you conduct business, not once per company.
Valid one year, then renews
Registration runs for one year from its effective date; material changes must be updated within 10 days.
CST number on every advertisement
The Attorney General's program instructs that your registration number “should be clearly displayed on all advertising materials.”
§17550.19 splits penalties into two tiers — and one reaches felony territory
A general violation of the seller of travel registration requirements is a misdemeanor, carrying a fine of up to $10,000, up to a year in county jail, or both. Certain trust-account violations under §17550.14 and §17550.15(b)–(c) climb further: those are charged as a wobbler, punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony carrying 16 months, or two or three years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $25,000. Separately, intentionally using a false or another seller's CST number with intent to defraud is its own misdemeanor-or-felony offense. Each of these stacks on top of the ordinary $5/day, $500-max late fee and the registration freeze §17550.20 imposes until any TCRC assessments are current.
Other California bonds & travel-agency resources
California CST registration questions
Do I have to open a trust account, or can I just buy a bond instead?
You have to actively elect the bond — it is not the default. B&P Code §17550.15 sets the trust account as the base requirement: 100% of everything you collect from a passenger for air or sea transportation or travel services goes into a federally insured trust account, and you cannot withdraw from it except to pay the carrier or provider. Subsection (k) then gives you the escape hatch: "In lieu of the trust account required by this article, an adequate bond as set forth in Section 17550.11 may be maintained by the seller of travel." "In lieu of" only works if you file the bond with the Attorney General before you advertise — if you start selling without filing it, the Attorney General sees a seller of travel who never established the required trust account, not a seller who chose a substitute.
I'm based in Nevada but sell trips to Californians online. Do I actually have to register with California?
Almost certainly yes. The Attorney General's Seller of Travel Program treats you as a seller of travel if you market, sell, or arrange transportation to a California resident, regardless of where your office sits. An out-of-state online agency with California customers is exactly the profile the program is built to catch — your Nevada address doesn't exempt the bookings you take from Californians. Once you're in scope, you still walk the same trust-account/bond/TCRF decision as an in-state seller under §17550.15; being out of state changes where your desk is, not which financial-security path you're required to pick.
How is my bond amount actually calculated if I go the bond route instead of the trust account?
It isn't a fixed penal sum the way most license bonds are. B&P Code §17550.11 sets the bond "in an amount at all times no less than" the amount you'd otherwise be required to hold in the §17550.15 trust account — which is 100% of the passenger payments you're currently holding for undelivered transportation or services. That means your required bond amount tracks your outstanding customer prepayments, not a static dollar figure assigned by your registration category. A seller carrying $40,000 in unfulfilled bookings needs a bond adequate to that exposure; a seller carrying $150,000 needs more. This is the opposite of Florida's model next door, where the bond sits at a flat $25,000 or $50,000 regardless of sales volume.
Where does California actually require me to display my CST number?
On your advertising. The Attorney General's Seller of Travel Program FAQ instructs consumers to check for it before booking, stating the registration number "should be clearly displayed on all advertising materials" — and separately warns consumers away from sellers who don't disclose it. Beyond advertising, B&P Code §17550.13 requires your pre-payment disclosure materials to tell the passenger which of trust account, bond, or restitution fund protection applies to their purchase. Treat the CST number as required on every public-facing offer — website, brochure, listing, ad — not just on the registration certificate hanging in your office.
What happens if my registration lapses while I keep selling trips?
Two costs stack. First, B&P Code §17550.20 charges a late fee of $5 per day, up to a maximum of $500, for every day you operate past your renewal date, and your registration cannot be renewed until that late fee — plus any outstanding Travel Consumer Restitution Corporation assessments under §§17550.43–.44 — is paid in full. Second, selling to California residents while unregistered is a violation the Attorney General can pursue under §17550.19, which carries a misdemeanor penalty of up to $10,000 and a year in county jail on its own, separate from the late fee. Renewing before the lapse is materially cheaper than either consequence.
Can I actually get in trouble for using someone else's CST number on my listings?
Yes, and California treats it as more serious than an ordinary registration lapse. B&P Code §17550.19 makes the "intentional use for any purpose of a false seller of travel registration number, with intent to defraud, by an unregistered seller of travel" punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony. It sits alongside the statute's felony-wobbler track for certain trust-account violations under §17550.14 and §17550.15(b)–(c), which can carry 16 months to three years of imprisonment and fines up to $25,000. Borrowing a host agency's CST number without a genuine, filed agent relationship is not a shortcut around registration — it is the specific conduct this section was written to punish.
All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov). BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-listed surety carriers.
General information, not legal, financial, or underwriting advice. California seller-of-travel registration is governed by Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§17550–17550.59 and administered by the Attorney General's Seller of Travel Program; trust, bond, and TCRF assignments, fees, and penalties can change. Confirm your specific registration path with the Attorney General's office before advertising, and request a quote for current bond pricing if you're on the bond path.
On the bond path? Get a quote sized to your actual trust obligation.
Tell us your estimated California travel sales and we'll quote a §17550.11 bond that satisfies the Attorney General's Seller of Travel Program — filed before you advertise, with renewals tracked so your CST registration never lapses.
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