FairFX Currency Card - Beware!

Chris1708

First of all let me start by saying that I've used FairFX pre-paid currency cards on a number of occasions both for Dollars and Euros and they've been great every time. Great exchange rates, easy to load with cash and very convenient and easy to track my spending with. In fact until a couple of weeks ago I wouldn't have hesitated for a second to recommend them at all but now my opinion has changed completely.

My wife and I booked a ten day break to Greece recently and flew out on May 28th. I had ordered a new FairFX currency card a month earlier and loaded enough cash onto it to cover minor expenses and pay for airport transfers and the hotel. I got paid the morning of our flight so the intention was to load the remainder of our spending money that morning on the way to the airport fully expecting our Euros to be available later that day.

So first of all I tried to load £500 onto the card only for the FairFX app to report a technical error. I tried once more resulting in the same error. Two further attempts, one on the FairFX website and another via the automated top-up line similarly failed due to reasons unknown.

I duly called my bank to check whether it was a problem with my debit card and was at that point informed that there was no issue at their end and that four transactions for £500 each had been authorised and the funds had been allocated for payment. I was then told that as debit card transactions were guaranteed there was nothing the bank could do and I would have to contact FairFX directly to straighten things out.

The card itself has a contact number on the rear and though I was now in a foreign country and I knew it would be a pricey call I was sure something could be done. I reasoned that surely a company whose bread and butter is dealing with foreign travel would have experience in dealing with such issues when the alternative would be to leave their customers stranded abroad with no access to any money.

This is where I clearly made a mistake. The customer service was completely none existent. I called the number on the back of the card and explained that due to a technical error on their end I was at that time £2000 out of pocket. I further explained that my pregnant wife and I were stuck at the airport in a foreign country and were effectively stranded until these transactions could be cancelled.

I was told that he was not allowed to deal with these kind of problems and that I would have to call the head office on a different number for assisstance. I called the number I was given however this was not a switchboard number but rather a single phone it seems as there was no queue and no waiting tone. The phone simply went straight to the engaged tone time and time again for the next five or six hours.

I called back the original number a number of times begging to be connected to the correct line and repeating my predicament over and over. Again I was brushed off time and again and told that I had to just keep calling the head office number. I continued for nearly two full days in total with no luck whatsoever by which time the meager amount of money we had remaining had dwindled to pretty much zero.

I called the original number a few more times to the same response before finally admitting defeat. Finally HSBC god bless them agreed to intervene as a one off and reverse all the transactions but told me that FairFX could still claim the money if they decided to.

I guess the point of this little rant is that I was completely and utterly shocked at how dreadful the customer service response was to this incident. How nobody in the card services department gave a damn about helping me out and couldn't get me off the phone fast enough.

The fact that a travel company selling a product as critical as a currency card can't even be bothered to assist their own customers in this kind of a situation despite repeated pleas. So basically the card is great when it works and the rates a very good but just pray that you don't have any problems with it when you're out of the country because once they've got your money they don't give a damn anymore.

sjg666

Thanks for the above - Just for the record I've posted this same thing in the Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area as I am also currently having a bit of a struggle with FairFx at the moment...

...I ordered a prepaid Euro card on 27th May paying £250 to be pre-loaded onto the card. As of today I still haven't received the card. I spoke to someone at FairFX customer services yesterday who said that they would send out a replacement as obviously the one they originally sent has gone astray - can't say I'm holding my breath that the second one will turn up! Thankfully I've left plenty of time before we travel and still have just under a fortnight to get the funds back to exchange for cash if we need to and I keep checking the online account daily to make sure the missing card hasn't been activated/used which it hasn't so far. Not the smooth transaction I was expecting though!

Chris1708

Normally I would have had everything planned well in advance but on this occasion we were simply not able so save a great deal before the holiday. I didn't think this would have been a problem as I've had nothing but positive experiences using FairFX in the past. For me it's not so much that there was a problem but more the total disregard shown by them in this instance.

sjg666

sjg666 wrote: »

Thanks for the above - Just for the record I've posted this same thing in the Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area as I am also currently having a bit of a struggle with FairFx at the moment...

...I ordered a prepaid Euro card on 27th May paying £250 to be pre-loaded onto the card. As of today I still haven't received the card. I spoke to someone at FairFX customer services yesterday who said that they would send out a replacement as obviously the one they originally sent has gone astray - can't say I'm holding my breath that the second one will turn up! Thankfully I've left plenty of time before we travel and still have just under a fortnight to get the funds back to exchange for cash if we need to and I keep checking the online account daily to make sure the missing card hasn't been activated/used which it hasn't so far. Not the smooth transaction I was expecting though!

Just wanted to update - card finally arrived today, a bit later than I had envisaged and later than Fairfx said it would - but all worked out in the end.

DSheridan

Hi Guys,

My experience of fairfx like yours starts great, card arrives works bla bla. I get double charged for out hotel. I contact fairfx to get one of the charges reversed. They need a form from the hotel to do so, also acceptable. I get the hotel to send the form and then nothing!

I sent loads of emails, either getting no reply or just we have not got it yet. I asked the hotel to send me the email conformation they got, and forwarded that on to them and asked. What has happened to this? They did not respond!

I get home after giving up and write a letter of complaint. It is now a month since I put it in and I have not had a proper reply. The only reply I have had is 'it has been received'. I have contacted the ombudsman and will continue to complain.

I am convinced their customer service team work 9-5 UK time 5 days a week. When dealing with international customer service this is not acceptable. I used to work with people in Asia and we found there was only about an hour where we were both awake. When dealing with money and holidays this is not really good enough.

The thing is the rates are not much better than the post office and I bet you would not get this kind of service.

Cheers.