Prepaid Travel Cards guide

nicholaswebb · 12 February 2016 at 4:37PM

I have 8 euros left on the card so not a lot I can do with that

Les.Clarke · 12 February 2016 at 4:57PM

You were lucky

I loaded £1000 with a good exchange rate (€1.39) 3 months ago. I did this in preparation for our holiday in May. Now it looks like I'm going to be penalised with transaction and non activity fees. They should not be allowed to get away with it. Considering withdrawing with GDP cash before the new fees kick-in.

nicholaswebb · 12 February 2016 at 5:05PM

oh dear ! I'm looking at a Fairfx card or one from the Post Office

Neato · 12 February 2016 at 5:08PM

willh254 wrote: »

I got the same email from UKash. Gave their customer service a ring. They won't waive the cancellation charge but did point out that if you have no balance on the card then they cannot take the fees. They also pointed out that if the card expires then they won't auto renew it. So if you have no money on the card and it expires soon then just wait for it to expire. It won't cost anything.
If you do have money on the card then you have two months to spend it all before the fees increase.

I did wonder how they would take the fees. I'll probably just leave mine to expire then. I haven't used it since they changed the website and made it so you logged in with your full card number and PIN. That just didn't sit right with me

Slinkyswimmer · 12 February 2016 at 5:47PM

The email from UKash showing their new charges states that the changes will take effect on 10 April 2016. However lower down you will see that the small print states that the new fees come into effect on 2nd April 2016. That seems misleading to me and gives people less than 2 months to sort this out. We have a significant sum on ours for holiday in May and are now going to have to sort this out. Really annoying. If we take the money out in the UK we will get stung with charges. Can they do this and not give you the option of cancelling the card without having to pay a charge? Hope we get some advice on this from Martin or his team.

NiftyDigits · 12 February 2016 at 5:48PM

Les.Clarke wrote: »

You were lucky
I loaded £1000 with a good exchange rate (€1.39) 3 months ago. I did this in preparation for our holiday in May. Now it looks like I'm going to be penalised with transaction and non activity fees. They should not be allowed to get away with it. Considering withdrawing with GDP cash before the new fees kick-in.

Why are you complaining? You'll have made a profit even with the new transaction fees.

If you withdraw, you'll lose 30€ in exchange rate fees plus ATM fees. If you close the card, it's not clear if they will charge the exchange rate fee. Don't panic. Work out which is the best way forward.

pegginout · 12 February 2016 at 5:51PM

I've got one euro on mine, really stupid question but how can I spend the one euro?

NiftyDigits · 12 February 2016 at 5:53PM

Neato wrote: »

I did wonder how they would take the fees. I'll probably just leave mine to expire then. I haven't used it since they changed the website and made it so you logged in with your full card number and PIN. That just didn't sit right with me

Skrill acquired UKASH. Optimal Payments acquired SKRILL. Times are a'changing.

Neato · 12 February 2016 at 10:05PM

pegginout wrote: »

I've got one euro on mine, really stupid question but how can I spend the one euro?

I had a couple of Euro on mine. I paid my own Paypal account with it. I took a hit on the fee for receiving payment as I'd rather have the remainder instead of letting them have it in fees.

Alternatively, you can use it in a shop, but I couldn't think of anything I needed with a low enough value and wasn't sure exactly how much to spend to use it all up etc

pegginout · 12 February 2016 at 10:51PM

Thanks for the reply, how do I pay my own PayPal account with it please?

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