Pre-paid card company cashes in on Covid

penners324

There are far better travel cards available. Why not close it?

conster_nation

I could close it, but I've already exchanged my Sterling for Euros on the card. So I'd lose out on the exchange rate if I changed the euros back to Sterling in order to withdraw my money and close the card.
I agree there are currently better cards available but I've had this account for many years and this is the first time I've been caught out by the charge. 
I use this card for spending on my annual summer holiday, the rest of the time it sits in a drawer and I pay no attention to it until the next holiday. The balance on the card is whatever I didn't spend on my last holiday. I suspect there are many people out there like me whose holidays were cancelled and they never gave a thought to their pre-paid card. Thinking back i knew this dormancy fee existed so I don't blame Caxton for charging it. I just feel that in these exceptional times they haven't done enough to help or advise people about what they can do to avoid the charge. There was no email warning of the impending charge and no email after they had added the charge, they just quietly added a £2 (or as in my case a 2.30euro) charge to my account. If I hadn't of accidentally opened the app and seen the charge I wouldn't have know it had been taken, and in 10 months time when going on my next holiday (Covid permitting) I'd have discovered £20 had gone on fees. So I created this post to raise the awareness of the charge for people like me and get some advice from people like you, for which I am very grateful. Thanks.

D3xt3r5L4b

conster_nation said:

Yes, it is in the T's and C's. 
"Account Management fee (applied every month if there have been no transactions, card loads or balance switches, in the previous 12 months) - £2.00"

So what's the problem?

wiseonesomeofthetime

@conster_nation : Go to AliExpress.com, change the currency of payment to Euro, and buy this funnel for €0.40 (last item in the list)

Job done

conster_nation

UK banks and credit card companies have fees listed in their T's and C's, but they contact their customers to alert them before the fees are charged (where possible) and they provide advice and guidance on how to avoid or minimize costs to the customer. Caxton just took the money and said nothing, and they will continue to nibble away at the accounts of every customer like me, who was affected by the lock down, until we conduct a transaction. I'm sure there are many people like me who won't be going out of the UK this year so they can't easily conduct a foreign transaction to avoid the fee. As Caxton isn't prepared to notify it's customers about the charges, I'm trying to do it for them, and thanks to the replies on this forum there are now suggestions of things customers can do to avoid or minimise costs.
Just because a charge is in the T's and C's doesn't mean it's right, Caxton (and probably other card providers) are taking money for doing nothing. 

D3xt3r5L4b

conster_nation said:

UK banks and credit card companies have fees listed in their T's and C's, but they contact their customers to alert them before the fees are charged (where possible) and they provide advice and guidance on how to avoid or minimize costs to the customer. Caxton just took the money and said nothing, and they will continue to nibble away at the accounts of every customer like me, who was affected by the lock down, until we conduct a transaction. I'm sure there are many people like me who won't be going out of the UK this year so they can't easily conduct a foreign transaction to avoid the fee. As Caxton isn't prepared to notify it's customers about the charges, I'm trying to do it for them, and thanks to the replies on this forum there are now suggestions of things customers can do to avoid or minimise costs.
Just because a charge is in the T's and C's doesn't mean it's right, Caxton (and probably other card providers) are taking money for doing nothing. 

You are aware of the charges though, be they in the T's and C's or in the contractual terms you signed and agreed to. They have no reason to notify you over and over again. Plus this is neither a bank (per se) or credit card lender.

jimbo26

Will be closing my account, as I don't need it now anyway This year I just transferred money to my Monzo account and used that instead.

Yahoo_Mail

conster_nation said:

UK banks and credit card companies have fees listed in their T's and C's, but they contact their customers to alert them before the fees are charged (where possible) and they provide advice and guidance on how to avoid or minimize costs to the customer.

I don't think that's true at all.  There might be the odd exception to this but where fees are clearly outlined in the terms and conditions, I doubt you'll get advanced warning from banks or credit card companies for almost any fee charged by them.  I don't think you'll get guidance on how to minimise charges either.  You might get "advice" to contact them or a debt charity if you're experiencing financial hardship (and the charges were potentially due to this such as unarranged overdraft fees or late payment fees) but that's about it.

conster_nation

Yahoo_Mail said:

conster_nation said:

UK banks and credit card companies have fees listed in their T's and C's, but they contact their customers to alert them before the fees are charged (where possible) and they provide advice and guidance on how to avoid or minimize costs to the customer.

I don't think that's true at all.  There might be the odd exception to this but where fees are clearly outlined in the terms and conditions, I doubt you'll get advanced warning from banks or credit card companies for almost any fee charged by them.  I don't think you'll get guidance on how to minimise charges either.  You might get "advice" to contact them or a debt charity if you're experiencing financial hardship (and the charges were potentially due to this such as unarranged overdraft fees or late payment fees) but that's about it.

Maybe I'm just with the right banks/credit cards and with the wrong pre-paid card. I get emails and texts if I go into overdraft or near my credit limit, and while the advice may be obvious e.g. "don't go over your limit or you'll be charged a fee" or "clear your overdraft by close of business or you'll be charged interest" at least it is a timely reminder before I incur charges.
I am aware that these are voluntary actions that financial institutions may or may not choose to follow, and that Caxton is quite within it's rights to not notify it's customers in advance of fees. Until now I didn't know that Caxton wasn't going to give me advance notification and I'm sure there are many people out there who didn't know that either.

eDicky

I've never been a Caxton user but your reminder of their monthly fee after non-usage can be useful for those who are.

The best remedy is to retrieve your funds and open a Starling Bank account on your phone, then use the debit card fee-free for future holidays. Your funds can remain in GBP, converting at the ideal MasterCard rate when used, or you can open an additional euro account with them and exchange at a minimal 0.4% spread (much better than Caxton) if you want to buy in advance.

The pound is so cheap now that your losses should be minimal or none to convert your Caxton balance back to GBP, withdraw and bin your card.