MSE News: The new king of spending abroad -the free Travelex Supercard launches today

Richard019

plunt wrote: »

It says there is a £2 fee for uk ATM withdrawals. However if its linked to my credit card which is 0% purchase.. Can I not just use it as a low cost stoozing method...or are there other fees i havent factored in?

Unless they've changed something, you might be better off using a savings account where you deposit using your card (Egg used to, and that's Yorkshire Building Society now). Those deposits always used to count as purchases, and you'd have no fee at all.

It was certainly that way a few years ago when RBS did their cashback on purchases for new current account customers as I did it. Before that it worked with credit cards on the same accounts because it used to be a loophole with the Egg Money credit card.

They might have changed it so you can't use credit cards, but it's worth checking if you're looking for some way to fast stooze on a purchase card. It also works as a way of using a purchases card as a balance transfer card. (Money to savings from the new card, then use the money to pay the old card)

junpit

Hi

I eventually managed to get it to take my mobile number and email address. Thats all it did.

Any ideas what I should expect next (if anything)?

Regards

Darren

SuperHan

junpit wrote: »

Hi

I eventually managed to get it to take my mobile number and email address. Thats all it did.

Any ideas what I should expect next (if anything)?

Regards

Darren

After it took my number and e-mail address it immediately asked me some questions about my travel habits within the app.

When I could finally press next to that, it took my name, DOB and address.

I'm now at the final stage to input a password and security question, but getting a submission error.

I did get errors at each stage along the way, and it took about an hour to get from one step to the next (although I wasn't trying continually, I put the app down then picked it up an hour later and it more or less then worked first time)

mhuk01

Just received an email: -
Hello,
Thanks for signing up for Supercard, we’re delighted to have you on board. We're just sending a quick message to re-confirm that you have successfully registered for a Supercard!

We’ll be popping your personal Supercard in the mail – expect it through your letterbox shortly (you won’t need to be at home to sign for it).

MrsWenger

Further to my post earlier today; the MSE update suggests the "phenomonal demand" email may be being received by those who don't travel often. I am not so sure; i truthfully chose the 3-4 times per year option and the only higher option as i recall it was business travel.

My initial view about selection criteria does seem correct; with the demand being as high as reported i would expect no further cards to be available by now but i am not sure it is linked to how often an individual travels.

SnowTiger

mrmadcat wrote: »

Care to enlighten the rest of us?

Perhaps the Kalixa card? You 'add load' in pounds and use it to spend abroad at Mastercard exchange rates.

http://www.kalixa.com/kalixa-pay/gb

Jsscmm

Currently getting 1.5 stars in the Apple Store and lots of negative reviews. I assume that the initial load overwhelmed the travelex infrastructure and has likely filled the available cards by now.

Even if only 1% of the recipients of the mse email tried to get one that's still 4x the total cards. Add in people who don't get the emails but read websites, people who registered for info etc and this looks to be a relatively badly thought through exercise from a scaling perspective.

As for the card.... I'll probably look to get one as an alternative. I can't see any inactivity references in the terms.

In addition to previous points my other concern is that I don't see how travelex make any money from this. If they don't then what's in it for them.... And if so how long will this last?

glentoran99

got an email yesterday saying my application had gone through,

SuperHan

Jsscmm wrote: »

Even if only 1% of the recipients of the mse email tried to get one that's still 4x the total cards. Add in people who don't get the emails but read websites, people who registered for info etc and this looks to be a relatively badly thought through exercise from a scaling perspective.

Yeah, my e-mails come as one of the later batches, so I was already 80% of the way through the application when I got the e-mail. I spotted it from reading the article on the site homepage.

I put 3-4 times down for travel, then Sun Sand and Ski and finally my Life is on My Phone and I was successful (eventually!)

Former_MSE_Helen

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 14 May 2015, 10.10am: Unfortunately Travelex has closed its Supercard to further applications as it says it's hit its cap (even though it initially told us it wouldn't impose one). Demand for the card was massive after we featured it in this week's email. We sent all our emails out by early afternoon on 13 May – well before Travelex neared its cap. If your email arrived after Supercard reached its limit, it may be because internet service providers sometimes delay emails. For full info see our Supercard guide.