o2 money card now released!

Grade_A_Reject

gerrard23 wrote: »

We arranged for one of these for our son because we wanted something that would support our son through University. We wanted him not to be able to go overdrawn - with all the rip-off charges that engenders - and we wanted to be able to load cash remotely at will as well as by standing order. We like the o2 brand and two of us are already customers. Their service is usually pretty good. We also liked the text advisories which would help to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Initially it was a bit of a struggle to set up as it had to be in his name. That was about six weeks ago. Once we got over the initial hurdle of having to wait a week between first two loads, we set up the standing order, which worked perfectly for two weeks.

Now for the third week running my wife and I have been on tenterhooks and have wasted hours of our time trying to

a) load money onto the card and getting this message

Add money to an O2 Money card

[SIZE=+0]Something’s wrong with the card you used or the card you want to add money to. Check both, then try again.

[/SIZE]
b) get a response from Natwest via the 10202 o2 web contact number. This afternoon I waited at least twenty minutes for an answer. Finally I was greeted by a nice young man called Jack who was not aware of any problems with the web site yesterday or today and had no notes of what to do other than advise customers to "keep trying". He was not aware either of any other complaints about the service, which I put down to the fact that nobody else was able to get through on this "service" to lodge a complaint.

I was advised that his manager, Matthew, was in a meeting which may take a long time but that he would get back to me as soon as he was out of his meeting.

Prior to calling, I had had a rapid response from the secure code line who advised me there was nothing wrong with my card - from RBS - in the same way that there was nothing wrong with my wife's card - from Nationwide. the problem was with o2 and Natwest's web site. They advised me to make the payment by telephone, but it transpires that neither o2 nor Natwest offer such a service.

Jack advised that I could lodge a written complaint to the following address:

Natwest
o2 Money card service
PO BOX 1747
Southend on Sea
Essex
UK
SS1 9AJ

no contact email address

All of this is a re-run of last week's fiasco which took two days for o2 and Natwest to resolve, cost my wife and I several hours of inputting card detail and hanging on phones trying to discover what was wrong. In the meantime our son's card, which he relies on at University for food etc., was rendered useless. We then had to go to the additional expense of sending cash in a letter to him - with the attendant postal strike risks, in order that he could eat.

During that last set of phone calls,the staff at Natwest seemed to be completely in the dark as to what was going on with the "service" and sent us off on wild goose chases with securecard (always responsive) and our banks.

In all, this o2 money card seemed a bright idea but in practice is too risky and unreliable. Just a marketing ploy. Not sure who it will backfire on. Dont join o2 just for this card.

I had exactly the same problem yesterday. Got to the verified by Visa bit then got the something's wrong message. O2 advised me to speak to my bank who told me there was no problems with my card. My "regular" top up of £50 also didn't go through.

When I spoke to someone else at O2 again later they admitted they had a problem but thought it had been fixed. Why not just tell me this in the first place?

All seems to be working fine today.

Grade_A_Reject

wizk1 wrote: »

At least someone one here likes it. But this card doesn't have a place in my and many others' lives.

I use mine purely for loading spending money onto and use it for cash withdrawals on a "when it's gone it's gone" basis.

On the rare occasions I do go out for a "proper" drink I don't have to carry cash that I'd probably lose but know that I have access to it if I need to but not so much that I might wake up in Vegas married to a Thai hooker the day after.

[Deleted User]

i got this as well its a good card except you can't use on paypal (load and go) and wire transfers
plus you have to top up £10 eveyr 3 months to keep card active
its good enough its a visa debit

Chrysalis

was going to send my sister some cash from my credit card but it is limited to debit card topups only, anyone know why?

ian_h

Got my card but for some reason they couldnt verify my details ( I assume this is an electoral roll check so cant see why it would fail) I was really hoping to get some good use from the card but with the low limits i'm finding i darent use it in case i "run out" too soon.

I notice they have no contact email address, but in the bumf it states that if you are interested in being able to verify yourself when the service is available then to call and let the CS know, which I did and they didnt really have a clue what I was talking about.

Does anyone have any news or ideas why verifications fail with this card?

If anyone HAS been able to verify themselves AFTER they received the card I'd be interested to know how they did it (why cant we just post the usual banking id to have the restrictions lifted?)

Cheers

pmduk

Their admin is a bit hit and miss in my experience. I can't even top mine up by debit card nowadays. Are you on the full electoral register or the edited version? It may vary depending on which version they use to verify you.

ian_h

Hi pmduk,

I'm on the full version and even checked creditexpert before I applied but still the application ended up unverified.