Prepaid Travel Cards guide

gettingtheresometime

Simon331 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a general warning as we have just got back from holiday to be hit with a big bill. Prior to going on holiday we got a Revolut pre-paid card as our usual credit card (Tesco Bank) has a big transaction fee (2.75% on each transaction) and dreadful exchange rate when we have used it abroad in the past. While on holiday I topped up my Revolut card on a few occasions without thinking about it.

I have now got home and checked my statements to find that each time I topped up I have been hit with a 4% Cash Transaction Fee by Tesco which immediately starts accruing interest, so it really is a double whammy, so for each £500 topup, I have been charged £20 and they have started charging interest on the £500 immediately so I also have an interest bill to pay.


Suffice to say I am more than a little displeased, especially with Tesco, but would have thought this would have been mentioned on the MSE webpage about prepaid cards, but I have just checked and Revolut is still top of the recommended list but there is no mention of these charges. I am trying to get in touch with Tesco to argue about it, but suspect I will not get anywhere so, either way, I wanted to warn other prospective Revolut card users, as I suspect this is going to be a policy more 'normal' credit card companies are going to implement.

Cheers
Simon

I've never used a credit card to top up my revolut card as I've always assumed that this would be akin to withdrawing cash.

Grace111

Our daughter ordered and set up a weswap card with the app and then loaded it with an initial £200. Her bank then phoned her immediately and said that weswap was a fraudulent company and that they were blocking her card from any further online transactions. When she explained that she would need her card because she is travelling to South America this Wednesday they said that was tough. She will now have to use cash withdrawals for her entire trip. They refused o remove the block. So now she will be stuck with charges every time she withdraws cash and she has to phone them first to tell them she is going to be withdrawing cash.

This is outrageous, if they think weswap is fraudulent why did they let the transaction go through? How can they be allowed to force her to do this for her 3 months holiday??

Any advice please

dj1471

Simon331 wrote: »

Just a general warning as we have just got back from holiday to be hit with a big bill.

Never use a credit card to top-up a prepaid card, almost every card will apply cash transaction fees for this same as withdrawing from an ATM.

Grace111 wrote: »

Any advice please

Firstly get her to apply for a Monzo account, my wife got her card the next working day. This is a bank account but can be used the same as a prepaid card. She will be able to top it up by bank transfer so won't need to use her debit card for this.

Foreign purchases are fee-free with Monzo and she can withdraw up to £200 cash from ATMs every 30 days without fees. After that it's 3%.

Full details here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/#monzo

Others may be able to advise of other/better options that she can get quickly. Starling Bank would be a better option (no limit on free withdrawals) but I don't know how quickly the card arrives.

Once she's back she should make a formal complaint to her bank and ask for compensation to cover whatever fees she incurs as a result of their over-zealous blocking of her card following a legitimate transaction.

EveryWhere

Grace111 wrote: »

Our daughter ordered and set up a weswap card with the app and then loaded it with an initial £200. Her bank then phoned her immediately and said that weswap was a fraudulent company and that they were blocking her card from any further online transactions. When she explained that she would need her card because she is travelling to South America this Wednesday they said that was tough. She will now have to use cash withdrawals for her entire trip. They refused o remove the block. So now she will be stuck with charges every time she withdraws cash and she has to phone them first to tell them she is going to be withdrawing cash.

This is outrageous, if they think weswap is fraudulent why did they let the transaction go through? How can they be allowed to force her to do this for her 3 months holiday??

Any advice please

https://support.weswap.com/hc/en-us/articles/219314188-Can-Someone-Else-Load-or-Pay-Into-My-WeSwap-Account-

Explain the situation to them and they should let you pay into her account.
Then your daughter can transfer the cash to you.

Jimmy1959

Dear Simon 311,
I do not have a Revolut card as I opted for a Starling bank account which I thoroughly recommend. In any event I would never top up a prepaid card from a credit card as this will always be deemed to be a cash transaction by your credit card company. This will have nothing to do with Revolut. Look at a Halifax Clarity credit card for use abroad again I thoroughly recommend. Not sure if they still have the promotion on but there was/is a £20 cashback (credit) to your Clarity account on first use abroad. Sorry if this is not much use to you now and good luck when talking to Tesco.

Jimmy1959

Take a very good look at a Starling bank account easy to set up and I was up and running within 3 days ater applying with the card arriving by 1st class post. Top up online by transfer. The account operates in pounds sterling and even gives you small interest on your balance. You simply use it to pay in the local currency. The exchange rate is as close to the inter-bank rate as you can get with no transaction fees. Also free ATM withdrawals up to the equivalent of £300 per day in the local currency.

lillybee

I ordered a revolut card to take on holiday to New York earlier this month, it cost me £4.99 for delivery. Since I got home several of the payments I made in shops and restaurants have reverted, the money is back on my card. I googled reverted payments and can see this has happened several times over many months with revolut and in different countries. My son has contacted them, same issues with his payments, revolut have said very sorry etc but the retailers will resubmit the reverted payments so it should all work out except the new payments could be at different exchange rates to the originals. I am not at all happy with this, I will wait and make sure everyone is paid but then close down this card. Once can be an error but it's happened a few times.

gettingtheresometime

lillybee wrote: »

I ordered a revolut card to take on holiday to New York earlier this month, it cost me £4.99 for delivery. Since I got home several of the payments I made in shops and restaurants have reverted, the money is back on my card. I googled reverted payments and can see this has happened several times over many months with revolut and in different countries. My son has contacted them, same issues with his payments, revolut have said very sorry etc but the retailers will resubmit the reverted payments so it should all work out except the new payments could be at different exchange rates to the originals. I am not at all happy with this, I will wait and make sure everyone is paid but then close down this card. Once can be an error but it's happened a few times.

I've never experienced this.

The only issue I had with mine is that tips I added to the bill.

lillybee

The tips confused me, I couldn't work out why my balance suddenly dropped, my son explained it, the tips took over a week to add on. The reverted payments have now gone out, that took over a week too, I definitely would not use it again

PhylPho

Been a Revolut GBP / Euro account holder for 18 months. No problems in that time. Added funds, withdrawn funds, various times and various places across Europe. Has seemed to me that MSE's recommendation of this particular financial services provider was justified.

Couple of weeks ago, an email arrived from Revolut announcing some mysterious "news" available on a YouTube video. I had a look. Revolut is launching a card made of shiny metal. Whoop-de-dooh. Excitement all round. Well, for some, perhaps.

I'm flying out on Wednesday to elsewhere in Europe and used my phone's Revolut app this morning to access my account for the purpose of adding some GBP funds to the amount already in the Sterling account. The account opened, displayed my present GBP total, and then flashed up a request that I log in again. No reason given. Just 'log in', even though I was already. . . logged in.

I did so. Phone number first, password next, and then. . . then I'm asked to await the arrival of a one-time passcode, which I'm asked to enter into the field that's waiting to be populated in the app. Passcode arrives within 30 seconds. But it arrives not only as an SMS message but also on-screen in the app. I can't, therefore, fill in the field because Revolut has already populated it.

There are no confirm or accept or enter buttons on-screen. So it just sits there. I wait, and wait. And then the app closes. And that's it. A message asks if I wish to report the "unexpected closure". I do. Then I try again to access my account. As before: phone number, password, and then wait-for-passcode. Which comes via SMS but also appears simultaneously in the log-in field. No instructions as to what to do next. No buttons to press. Nothing. Then the app closes. End of.

I have now endured this six times today with six different passcodes and six app "unexpected" closures.

Revolut has NO customer support desk. No IT response team. No facility for getting in touch urgently by telephone or email so as to trigger a Support Ticket. Nothing. Instead, it has a. . .'Community Forum'. How twee.

So I go there. I choose the "Bugs" section of the forum and file a request for help with the situation I'm encountering. That was at 10.30am. The request isn't regarded as an emergency customer support plea but as a, uh, "topic". As such, I'm told that "your post will be moderated" in due course. By whom? When? Why? I've no idea.

Now, six hours after failing to conduct a really truly routine IT process, I'm no further forward. The 'Community Forum' advises that if I need Help, "use the in-app Help". No mention is made of what to use if the app itself doesn't work. I've posted again. This time, I'm told that yes, I still have one post "pending" and now this post will also. . . pend. But hey, why worry? It's only a. . . "topic" after all.

But a financial services provider is not an online forum like MSE. It has -- or well, I thought it had -- obligations in regard to the nature of the relation it has with its customers. Bit like banks or building societies, really: email support, or telephone support, or Live Chat.

But Revolut? Nah. If the Revolut app fails to function, then the only apparent alternative is "topics". And a Community Forum "moderator" who will take as long to look over an emergency request for help from a customer as would be the case if that customer was posting a new recipe to somewhere else in the chat forum.

Is this really the way the UK financial regulator thinks a financial services business should be run? I don't know, but intend to find out when I'm back from my travels. Meantime:

Does anyone here know if there's any significant cost difference between using Revolut for my overseas ATM cash withdrawals and using my Halifax Clarity credit card (I appreciate, I need to settle with Halifax as soon as I'm back home.)

Reason for asking is that I am not taking my Revolut card with me because I have no faith in it now, nor would suggest that anyone else have any faith in it, either. Best let it carry on with its Generation Moron YouTubing of shiny metal cards for those with delusions of adequacy.

MSE carrying on though with its unqualified recommendation of Revolut -- because I certainly haven't read of anything to the contrary -- strikes me as another matter altogether.