Post office travel money card

ampersand

Go for the Norwicjh and Peterborough Classic Gold account, which gives fee-free atm cash world-wide and other protection.

http://www.nandp.co.uk/current-account/gold-classic-current-account/

The £500 monthly deposit can be a revolving door deposit/withdrawal as it is for me.
#
This was the recommendation I had when asking a similar ? here on mse, for time just spent back in NZ.

[The fact that my actual Bank, Natwest, has messed up on the subsequent process has no bearing on the worthiness of this N&P a/c. Natwest are having to make a considerable goodwill gesture to me as we speak.]

MalaSuerte

It sounded like a good idea but ultimately turned out to be a huge disappointment after causing embarrassment, inconvenience and annoyance whilst holidaying in Barcelona, Spain. After admittedly discovering that I had entered an incorrect PIN several times on first usage of the card, I called Customer Services expecting them to confirm that the card had been 'blocked' and that they could reset it. I was informed that the card was fine and that it was the merchant's hand-held device at fault. Another attempt at another merchant produced the same result where the machine displayed that the card was declined, in spanish of course! Another call to Cust. Services stated that my card was fine and that the merchant's device was at fault..! Another call to Cust. Services and I insisted on speaking to a supervisor who then suggested I try to unblock it by selecting 'Card Services' at an ATM machine followed by the option to change PIN. It seemed a feasible suggestion but.... the card was not recognised by any of three separate ATM's..!!
When my next call was answered by someone who sounded as though they were having a bad day, I immediately asked for a supervisor who wasn't much help either and confessed that there was nothing they could do apart from sending me another card..!! You can imagine my anger at hearing this but I must admit that I was remarkably cool and said that I wanted a full refund upon my return to the UK.

Imagine my horror upon return to the UK to discover that they had not logged my complaint and I had to go through the whole explanation again, this time insisting that it was registered as an official complaint. My threat to contact the Financial Ombudsman seemed to register with this supervisory person and I have since received a letter of apology containing an admission the the card chip was the root of my problems and a promise to provide a full refund as a 'gesture of goodwill' ...!!!

I have since responded with a scathing letter and suggested another 'gesture of goodwill'. Needless to say, I am far from impressed with the whole service and based upon my experience and that of other forum posts, I certainly would not recommend this Travel Money Card.
Once I eventually receive the bar-coded letter in the post for presentation at the Post Office along with photographic ID I shall take my refund and RUN..!!

bigadaj

MalaSuerte wrote: »

It sounded like a good idea but ultimately turned out to be a huge disappointment after causing embarrassment, inconvenience and annoyance whilst holidaying in Barcelona, Spain. After admittedly discovering that I had entered an incorrect PIN several times on first usage of the card, I called Customer Services expecting them to confirm that the card had been 'blocked' and that they could reset it. I was informed that the card was fine and that it was the merchant's hand-held device at fault. Another attempt at another merchant produced the same result where the machine displayed that the card was declined, in spanish of course! Another call to Cust. Services stated that my card was fine and that the merchant's device was at fault..! Another call to Cust. Services and I insisted on speaking to a supervisor who then suggested I try to unblock it by selecting 'Card Services' at an ATM machine followed by the option to change PIN. It seemed a feasible suggestion but.... the card was not recognised by any of three separate ATM's..!!
When my next call was answered by someone who sounded as though they were having a bad day, I immediately asked for a supervisor who wasn't much help either and confessed that there was nothing they could do apart from sending me another card..!! You can imagine my anger at hearing this but I must admit that I was remarkably cool and said that I wanted a full refund upon my return to the UK.

Imagine my horror upon return to the UK to discover that they had not logged my complaint and I had to go through the whole explanation again, this time insisting that it was registered as an official complaint. My threat to contact the Financial Ombudsman seemed to register with this supervisory person and I have since received a letter of apology containing an admission the the card chip was the root of my problems and a promise to provide a full refund as a 'gesture of goodwill' ...!!!

I have since responded with a scathing letter and suggested another 'gesture of goodwill'. Needless to say, I am far from impressed with the whole service and based upon my experience and that of other forum posts, I certainly would not recommend this Travel Money Card.
Once I eventually receive the bar-coded letter in the post for presentation at the Post Office along with photographic ID I shall take my refund and RUN..!!

I presume this has all been submitted to the daily mail?

MalaSuerte

As a first step, I received my full refund as I expected, nothing less.
My follow-up letter hit the 'right spot' as it ultimately resulted in a 'phone call during which I was informed that I will be sent a satisfactory sum of money to be collected using the aforementioned bar-coded letter when presented at any Post Office. Job Done!

As a suggestion to the complaints dept. I proffered there should be a definitive method to confirm the card is fully operational prior to leaving our shores instead of waiting until first use whilst abroad.

rcon

getting this travel money card from the post office was huge mistake.to be fair,it was accepted in several places in Seattle, USA, but it was very embarrassing having to explain o2 every shopkeeper, bartender etc how to use the thing because it was viewed with suspicion.

the big problem really started when unfortunately the card was stolen.

the two reasons for having this card r security and convenience. It failed miserably on both counts.the security features clearly did not do their job because the thief was able to override the security with complete ease. He or she was able to spend spend spend. the pin was a complete waste of time because clearly he was able to use the card without having to enter the pin.having cancelled the card, i then hoped to get a replacement as soon as possibleand i was originally told that it would take 3 working days. This in itself is pretty poor when you think the most credit card companies will replace a lost or stolen card within about 24 hours. Not only this, but they also charge you 50 dollars for the courier! then to add insult to injury, when i called to find out when a card would arrive i was then told that it was in fact 5 working days because it took longer in the usa (?!) which was going to be so late in my trip that it was simply not worth it.

i got this card in the hope that it would save me a little bit of money on the exchange rate and give me some peace of mind. Instead it has cost me a lot of money and has created a huge headache. Avoid like the plague!

NiftyDigits

rcon wrote: »

getting this travel money card from the post office was huge mistake.to be fair,it was accepted in several places in Seattle, USA, but it was very embarrassing having to explain o2 every shopkeeper, bartender etc how to use the thing because it was viewed with suspicion.

the big problem really started when unfortunately the card was stolen.

the two reasons for having this card r security and convenience. It failed miserably on both counts.the security features clearly did not do their job because the thief was able to override the security with complete ease. He or she was able to spend spend spend. the pin was a complete waste of time because clearly he was able to use the card without having to enter the pin.having cancelled the card, i then hoped to get a replacement as soon as possibleand i was originally told that it would take 3 working days. This in itself is pretty poor when you think the most credit card companies will replace a lost or stolen card within about 24 hours. Not only this, but they also charge you 50 dollars for the courier! then to add insult to injury, when i called to find out when a card would arrive i was then told that it was in fact 5 working days because it took longer in the usa (?!) which was going to be so late in my trip that it was simply not worth it.

i got this card in the hope that it would save me a little bit of money on the exchange rate and give me some peace of mind. Instead it has cost me a lot of money and has created a huge headache. Avoid like the plague!

Was just a bad choice. If you want that kind of protection, a Travelex Cash Passport currency card or an ICE Prepaid card would be better. Cash Passport has a free extra card on request and ICE gives an extra card as standard. With the Cash Passport, you just call to block the lost/stolen card. With ICE, you call to block the active card and get the fund transferred to the spare card.
With Travelex, you can also get the funds wired to you if you lose both cards.