Who's liable for travel money delivery

UsOrThem

I noticed when using the MSE travel money max that ChangeGroup comes up at the top quite often and having done some searching on them the reviews are mixed but below par. I just wanted to bring this up to see what others had experienced.

One thing that stood out as a real red flag was they offer 'insurance' for your money while in transit to you. Now I'm pretty sure that the sales of goods act states it the retailer's responsibility to successfully place goods in the hands of the recipient. So unless money is different in some way surely this 'insurance' which is paid to them, is the equivalent of PPI!
It's sent on a signed for service so if you don't sign for it, it's not delivered! simple as...

when I asked about delivery and what was their procedure on delayed or lost money this was their reply...

If you add our insurance option to your order this will guarantee delivery on the 5th working day before 1pm.

Without this we cannot guarantee a delivery date although most orders are received the following day from dispatch.

Without insuring your order if there is any loss in transit you will personally be liable.

Kind regards
TMO Customer Support

I personally won't be using Change Group as this set up sounds like they'd leave you high and dry if things went wrong.

benjus

Not sure about the legal side of your question, but unless I was going somewhere like Argentina where getting cash before you travel is actually a good idea and wasn't able to change money easily via the work intranet and didn't have a good exchange house nearby, I wouldn't bother using any of these cash by mail order services.

UsOrThem

I do normally just pick up my foreign exchange as I'm fortunate to pass through central london a fair amount but in this case I'm not, hence having to try a delivery service. Which I'm sure a lot of people have to use.
It just strikes me that Change Group's set out to try and recoup costs in dubious ways after offering a top ranking low rate.

benjus

UsOrThem wrote: »

I do normally just pick up my foreign exchange as I'm fortunate to pass through central london a fair amount but in this case I'm not, hence having to try a delivery service. Which I'm sure a lot of people have to use.

My point was that people don't have to use these services. I've travelled a lot over the last 8 years, but only for one trip (Argentina) I bothered to change money before travelling. It just doesn't make sense to me when better options are available.

UsOrThem wrote: »

It just strikes me that Change Group's set out to try and recoup costs in dubious ways after offering a top ranking low rate.

You may be right - which is why I'd prefer not to use these services at all. In any case I wouldn't touch one that doesn't use Special Delivery with a barge pole - even if the law is on your side you'd face an uphill struggle getting your money back.

bagand96

Interesting that you raise this as there was a post last week about this very issue with ChangeGroup: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5182258

I used ChangeGroup when they an outlet at my local airport where I could order to collect there. Never had any issues. I don't think they have many airport outlets now as they lost a few franchises. Not sure I'd ever order a sizeable amount of cash for delivery.

It does depend on which airport you use but ordering for collection at an airport can offer very competitive rates. Moneycorp are usually good and are at a few airports.

Obviously_the_best

It's their responsibility. No question about it.

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations

shaun_from_Africa

The problem is that although the Consumer contract regulations clearly state that the seller holds the risk until the goods have been passed to the consumer (or their agent), the Sale of goods act allows for the risk to be be passed to the consumer at a different time if both parties agree to this.

Unless otherwise agreed, the goods remain at the seller’s risk until the property in them is transferred to the buyer, but when the property in them is transferred to the buyer the goods are at the buyer’s risk whether delivery has been made or not.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54/section/20

The seller could argue that by agreeing to the terms and conditions on the website, the buyer has stated that they will accept the risk during the shipping process.

Whatever the case, I don't think it would be worth the risk in dealing with them even if their rates are slightly better than other exchange companies.
If money did go missing before delivery and a court, bank or credit card company decided that that a refund should be paid, this might take a very long time to actually get the money back.