Travelex debit card charges

bignred05

Could any one help me out here please
I have had a really, really bad weekend trying to order foreign currency
from Travelex on-line

no to top it all I have found I have been charged twice (its a long story) £9.01 by my bank, as I used alliance+leicester debit card
I was under the impression when you used a debit card there was no charge

can any one clarify and advise what card I should use

because I am pretty certain I have used the same debit card before without getting charged

dzug

It depends which bank your debit card is with whether they charge you or not. A&L do - I've no idea whether they always have or whether this is recent.

I'm pretty sure there is a list somewhere on this site - if you go through the travel and transport link at the top of the page and dig around a bit I'm sure you will find it.

shirlsky

I would contact your bank to see what their charges are for purchasing foreign exchange. Some charge for a "cash advance" even when you are using your own money on a debit card. But we all know bank are greedy beggars!

I asked my bank (Smile) what the charges are and I am still none the wiser. I am just going to Marks & Spencers to get change my money there. At least I know when paying cash, there are no nasty service charges.

bignred05

dzug wrote: »

It depends which bank your debit card is with whether they charge you or not. A&L do - I've no idea whether they always have or whether this is recent.

Thanks

I am off on holiday tomorrow, from Friday night until now (and no doubt tomorrow at the airport) things are going pear shaped

this is just another disaster, its cost me £9.01 (twice) for a whole lot of hassle and phone calls to yes those wonderful 0870's

Icould of sworn that I have used my debit card before without charge:mad:

dzug

bignred05 wrote: »

Thanks

I am off on holiday tomorrow, from Friday night until now (and no doubt tomorrow at the airport) things are going pear shaped

this is just another disaster, its cost me £9.01 (twice) for a whole lot of hassle and phone calls to yes those wonderful 0870's

Icould of sworn that I have used my debit card before without charge:mad:

Why twice? That bit doesn't make sense.

Steve_xx

Apparently, Halifax and Nationwide do not charge for using their Visa debit card to obtain foreign currency.

See here for further detail on this debit card charging scam:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=414877&in_page_id=7

bignred05

dzug wrote: »

Why twice? That bit doesn't make sense.

Like I said in the first post "Its a long story" but you asked for it so here goes

on Friday evening I tried to order some euros from Travelex, the first time I ordered when I got to the last page all I got was an error/problem message
so I assumed that the order had not worked etc

so I just ordered again, checks my emails and there are 2 emails for 2 orders

no I am not going to bore you with the rest of the story, but believe it gets a lot, lot worse

then this morning I checked my online bank account to find out that I have been charged £9.01 twice (1 for each order)
I phoned my bank and was told by one person it was travelex who had charged
then I phoned travelex (one very, very very angry man) regarding the whole issue, who advised me it was my bank who had charged me

the phoned my bank back (again not very happy) they are now referring the charges onto another dept

I can see one or two very strongly worded letter going off upon my return from holiday



like i said its a long, long story thankfully for you i have not mentioned a number of other things

dzug

Your bank is definitely wrong in saying Travelex charged you .

You probably got a half-trained member of staff.

Hope it all works out

MarkyMarkD

I don't understand why people think this is wrong.

If you use your VISA debit OR credit card to get cash over the counter in any bank (other than your own), you will be charged a cash advance fee.

The fact that the cash is in a foreign currency doesn't make any difference - it's still a cash advance.

If you want to obtain cash, you can get it through an ATM free of charge or over your OWN bank's counter free of charge.

VISA charges the banks for processing cash advances and the banks are passing this charge on. Nationwide and others who don't pass the charge on are choosing to bear it themselves for marketing reasons but that's their choice - it doesn't make it a rip-off if other banks don't do so.

The fact that the OP inadvertently processed two purchases in error is their own error and not their bank's. If an internet transaction appears to go wrong half-way through, it's NEVER good to just "do it again" or press refresh. Always check if it's gone through before doing it again.

You would have known almost instantly if you had had an e-mail receipt for the transaction.

Travelex's website explicitly says that you may be charged for buying currency with a credit OR debit card.

Steve_xx

bignred05 wrote: »

Like I said in the first post "Its a long story" but you asked for it so here goes

on Friday evening I tried to order some euros from Travelex, the first time I ordered when I got to the last page all I got was an error/problem message
so I assumed that the order had not worked etc

so I just ordered again, checks my emails and there are 2 emails for 2 orders

no I am not going to bore you with the rest of the story, but believe it gets a lot, lot worse

then this morning I checked my online bank account to find out that I have been charged £9.01 twice (1 for each order)
I phoned my bank and was told by one person it was travelex who had charged
then I phoned travelex (one very, very very angry man) regarding the whole issue, who advised me it was my bank who had charged me

the phoned my bank back (again not very happy) they are now referring the charges onto another dept

I can see one or two very strongly worded letter going off upon my return from holiday



like i said its a long, long story thankfully for you i have not mentioned a number of other things

I recently bought £300 worth of foeign currency from Travelex and was charged £4.55 by Visa for doing so. I then cancelled the order because I could not travel and Travelex levied a charge of £10, but I noted that Visa had credited £4.40 back to me! In your case it is easy to see that this was an error on the Travelex site and as such they ought to give you back your money without levying the £10 charge and in doing so you should be credited by Visa too.

Steve_xx

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't understand why people think this is wrong.

If you use your VISA debit OR credit card to get cash over the counter in any bank (other than your own), you will be charged a cash advance fee.

The fact that the cash is in a foreign currency doesn't make any difference - it's still a cash advance.

If you want to obtain cash, you can get it through an ATM free of charge or over your OWN bank's counter free of charge.

VISA charges the banks for processing cash advances and the banks are passing this charge on. Nationwide and others who don't pass the charge on are choosing to bear it themselves for marketing reasons but that's their choice - it doesn't make it a rip-off if other banks don't do so.

The fact that the OP inadvertently processed two purchases in error is their own error and not their bank's. If an internet transaction appears to go wrong half-way through, it's NEVER good to just "do it again" or press refresh. Always check if it's gone through before doing it again.

You would have known almost instantly if you had had an e-mail receipt for the transaction.

Travelex's website explicitly says that you may be charged for buying currency with a credit OR debit card.

You're wrong. The op is not at fault since the webpage displayed an error message and therefore the op thought that the transaction was incomplete and so tried again.

Charging customers for using their debit/credit cards is absurd and it is the thin end of the wedge. Soon we will all have to factor in an extra 10% on all of our purchases in order to satisfy the greedy banks who levy these stealth charges on an often unsuspecting consumer.