Ripped off by Travelex

stoneman

dealsearcher wrote: »

That Thoma Sex Change Global is a good site. :T

Better just to get the best rate from that site rather than go to Travelex and then have the hassle of claiming back from them under their best rate promise.

They charge for delivery, £5 I think, so not a good idea if you are only buying a small amount. With Travelax you can pick your money up at the airport free of charge

chuckley

sturll wrote: »

Tit.

:rolleyes:

no definately not me as i dont have any...

dealsearcher

stoneman wrote: »

They charge for delivery, £5 I think, so not a good idea if you are only buying a small amount. With Travelax you can pick your money up at the airport free of charge

Ah well - back to the Nationwide debit card. If you need cash straight away then an ATM at the airport on arrival. Not always the best idea but good at certain locations e.g. Bangkok. Otherwise if you must have a small amount of cash before departure then £10 at the Post Office is not going to break the bank, with furher cash as and when you need from an ATM with the Nationwide card.

PBA

Arguably everyone going on about Nationwide does more harm than good. Even if you don't bank with Nationwide you're still better off using ATMs abroad, as the bank exchange rate far beats the tourist rate you'll pay at the Post Office, M&S, etc., even when the fees are taken into account. Personally I don't travel enough to justify having a Nationwide account just for use abroad, but when I check my statement I always get a better rate from my Abbey and HSBC cards than I would have exchanging money before I left.

bignred05

fionacooper25 wrote: »

I recently used the Travelex website to try and buy some Euros online. It came highly recommended on this site as offering the best exchange rates available and this fact is verified on their website where they have a “Best Price Guarantee”.

Last Wednesday, I attempted to purchase Euros online to collect at Liverpool Airport on Friday morning. For some unknown reason, the transaction could not be completed, with no explanation given, however I was “issued” with a voucher to take to the airport. Hopefully, with this voucher I would still receive this great rate at the airport and was well aware that the exchange rate had not differed as I checked before leaving home.

When changing at the airport, I was horrified to be given an atrocious rate of less than 1%, walking away with fewer Euros to my Pound. If I had known the “voucher” was worthless, I would have changed my money at Marks & Spencer’s where they were offering the same 1.039 rate on Thursday.

What is the purpose of offering a "voucher" with 0% commission when they offer this service to every Tom, !!!!!! & Harry. Perhaps they should change their advertising to state that they guarantee the best price, commission-free, foreign currency in the UK – unless you’re at the airport where they'll do what they like as you have no other option!!

I have filed a complaint with their customer services. They have a money back guarantee if you can find a better offer elsewhere (internet only) but do they offer a money back guarantee if they are conning you by not letting you buy online?

I had a similar experience the summer before last with Travelex
it certainly got my holiday off to the worst possible start

I'll keep it brief, basically went to order euros on line to collect at the airport
whilst going through the process of ordering on the final page no confirmation followed (wish I knew then what was going to follow)
so thinking I had no money to collect, I reordered again this time everything went through fine
I then phoned travelex to check what had happened and was informed that only one order had gone through
well guess what the following morning i found out I was £600 overdrawn because "both" order had gone through :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Now I'm going to go through the hassle and the aggro I went through for the next 72 hours other than to say it really put a dampner on our holiday that year and I was livid in the departure lounge with Travelex due to what had happened

so much to say I got £20 goodwill gesture off Travelex they also covered my bank charges for going overdrawn, I was going to write and complain further but never did in the end

One thing i did do was invest in a Nationwide Flex account
best thing i ever did :money::money::money:

thank you very much Travelex

photome

PBA wrote: »

Arguably everyone going on about Nationwide does more harm than good. Even if you don't bank with Nationwide you're still better off using ATMs abroad, as the bank exchange rate far beats the tourist rate you'll pay at the Post Office, M&S, etc., even when the fees are taken into account. Personally I don't travel enough to justify having a Nationwide account just for use abroad, but when I check my statement I always get a better rate from my Abbey and HSBC cards than I would have exchanging money before I left.

How does it do more harm than good?

This is a moneysavingsite and having a nationwide account that costs nothing to set up and only needs to be used for your holidays has to make sense. If you have one main holiday a year and spend £2000 the savings would soon add up year after year.

stoneman

tldkid wrote: »

you will be charged by your bank for a cash transaction.

No you won't, it's just like drawing money out of a hole in the wall, unless your bank charges you for doing it, in that case I would find another bank.
I think you are confusing it with using a credit card to withdrawl money.

Amys

stoneman wrote: »

No you won't, it's just like drawing money out of a hole in the wall, unless your bank charges you for doing it, in that case I would find another bank.
I think you are confusing it with using a credit card to withdrawl money.

Some banks will make a £5 charge if you are using a debit card to purchase currency from a currency supplier, such as Travelex and the PO (although PO will usually process as a cash transaction, taking out cash and then applying cash to the currency transaction), I think most, but not all do this.

MrSmartprice

PBA wrote: »

Arguably everyone going on about Nationwide does more harm than good. Even if you don't bank with Nationwide you're still better off using ATMs abroad, as the bank exchange rate far beats the tourist rate you'll pay at the Post Office, M&S, etc., even when the fees are taken into account. Personally I don't travel enough to justify having a Nationwide account just for use abroad, but when I check my statement I always get a better rate from my Abbey and HSBC cards than I would have exchanging money before I left.

I just don't understand the logic there!

A Nationwide Flexaccount is about the cheapest current account to operate, far better than any of the 'big four' or whatever they are these days. Even if you don't use it for everyday banking, it's worth opening one so that you can get your own money from an ATM abroad without having to pay. You gain by paying no fees or commission, and also by the fact that you get the commercial rate, not the tourist rate.

As far as I can see, It's a no-brainer!;)

stoneman

Amys wrote: »

Some banks will make a £5 charge if you are using a debit card to purchase currency from a currency supplier, such as Travelex and the PO (although PO will usually process as a cash transaction, taking out cash and then applying cash to the currency transaction), I think most, but not all do this.

Stand corrected. I am with Natwest and was with Yorkshire and neither of these charged.