FairFx Currency Cards - Sneaky new charge proposed

Steve_xx

I have one of these currency cards from years ago. It has a credit balance on it of a few pence and it expired way back in 2012. Had I not taken much notice of the email detail received today then I reckon I could have found myself saddled with a monthly admin fee that I may not have been made/become aware of for years hence! In essence, Fairfx plan to charge £2 per month for expired cards that have a balance:

This is just a friendly notification to tell you we're making some updates to the Terms and Conditions of your FairFX Currency Card.

As you know, we strongly believe in transparency and in listening to our customers, and these changes reflect that feedback.

As of May 20th, 2017, the following changes will come into effect:

A reduction in the refund charge for your active cards from £10/$10/€10 to £5/$5/€5 – making it cheaper to unload your card.

A reduction in the card renewal fee - previously £5.95, now free

Introduction of an administration fee of £2/$3/€2.50 per month for expired cards with leftover balances. This reflects costs we are charged for cards that expire without having balances cleared.

The “out of currency fee” for the Euro and US Dollar cards will increase to 1.75%. This is charged when you use the cards in a different currency to what is held on the card. This does not affect the GBP Everywhere card.

JonoClouds

LIke the OP I have just had the same email stating FairFx will charge me £2/month for my expired card. It expired in 2015 and has a balance of EUR 0.26 left on it.
There's no way to cancel the card or close the account online.
I've emailed them at enquiries@fairfx.com thus:

Subject: Please close my account
Sirs

My card number [redacted]
Address: [redacted]
Name: [redacted]

This card expired on 4/2015.
It has a balance of EUR 0.26.
I have received an email from you stating that expired cards with balance remaining are to be charged £2 per month.
As I do not wish to incur any such charges and cannot utilise the remaining balance, would you please close my account immediately.
Please would you confirm these instructions by responding to this email.

Thank you

I'll post here again if I get a reply. In the meantime, I deleted the payment card details in the My Account summary on the FairFx website so that they cannot charge this (very naughty) fee to it.

JonoClouds

Following on from my very recent post, I was impressed to receive an email back from FairFx just 18 minutes after I contacted them.
The response was:

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for your email.

As requested, I have terminated the card on our system.
This should take effect within 48 hours.

Kind Regards,
Stephen Wilson
FAIRFX

So that was very impressive customer service. Shame about their blunder with the new fee, though!

eDicky

I would assume that the monthly charge on expired cards only continues until any remaining balance is consumed, which is doubtless its purpose.

The 'refund charge' for unloading your card can be avoided by using it to top-up a Revolut account, which can then be withdrawn without fee. It may also work with Monzo or Loot.

Zork

Hi,

My card expired nearly 4 years ago with 5.50 euro's on it. As it Costs 5 euros to withdraw the funds I told them to zero it and completely close the account.

This was the reply:

Thank you for your email.

'Please bare in mind you will not be charged for your expired Euro Card if your card balance is at zero (£0:00). You only get charged if you have funds on your card so I advise you request a refund of all your funds.

If you would like a refund then please call us between 9am and 5.30pm, Monday-Friday on 0207 778 9300 with your bank account number and sort code to hand.'


Surely there is a system to auto refund money from expired cards to the original debit card....I didn't knowingly sign up to this so maybe it'll go the way of PPI. Hang on to your emails :rotfl:

eDicky

Under the revised T&Cs there is now no fee to renew your card - which would avoid the new monthly charge on expired cards with a balance, and allow that balance to be cleared...

Steve_xx

eDicky wrote: »

Under the revised T&Cs there is now no fee to renew your card - which would avoid the new monthly charge on expired cards with a balance, and allow that balance to be cleared...

Yes, you're right. But mine had 12p on it, and so I opted to forego it. The card was useful in its day but my personal needs are satisfied with the Clarity card. No need to charge that up in the first place!

redux

I received the email just over an hour ago.

I have a valid card, but when I log in and review things I find I have only used it for 5 transactions in euros since Sept 2011, and none since mid 2013. In fact maybe it's surprising they renewed it free of charge last time, and I haven't actually used the current card yet.

I hardly used it after I discovered Kalixa, which had a better exchange rate, but has now closed. Now I have Revolut and a credit card with no loading.

I think its days are numbered for me too. If I understand one of eDicky's posts above, can I use it to top up Revolut in euros, with no charge?

eDicky

redux wrote: »

I think its days are numbered for me too. If I understand one of eDicky's posts above, can I use it to top up Revolut in euros, with no charge?

Yes, that's how I cleared the balance on my FairFX card over a year ago. Just top-up with your euro balance on screen and enter the card details. If it still works...

Steve_xx

Perhaps the monthly charge for expired cards with balances ceases once the balance is effectively reduced to zero by the monthly charge?

If not, then this means worrying uncertainty about the accrual of charges on an account where one is not actually supposed to able to go into the red!

redux

eDicky wrote: »

Yes, that's how I cleared the balance on my FairFX card over a year ago. Just top-up with your euro balance on screen and enter the card details. If it still works...

Sorry to sound thick if I havent spotted something obvious, but is there a way to add a second card, or do you just delete one and add another, twice over?

I asked Revolut this question on their support tab in the ap, but they seem to have a new so-called chatbot which after 5 minutes sends a push message outside the ap that it is auto-closing the query due to your non-response.