Local Money money transfer service fee legality.

zonnard

Hello, I deal currently with a money transfer (Remittance) business with a worldwide network of agencies. I used this service regularly to send payment to my family who are living in Saudi Arabia and Africa. We talk about small sums of around £110 each month.  The cashier gave me always receipts, but I went back a few days ago asking the manager for a remittance receipt for all my transactions FOR THE LAST 18 MONTHS ( i needed them for a court purpose and lost a few receipts)  and also asked him for an updated company reference letter not older than 3 months. To my biggest surprise, the manager and the cashier both agreed that I have to pay the business £180 (yeah £10 per remittance   ) to get my 18 months receipt. I could not understand why he charges me for copies he has on his system £180 I thought it's dodgy as I have previously done the exact same thing with a different money transfer service but they gave me for free all the receipts I asked for. I also know that a few money transfer service charge £40 max to retrieve the receipts. 

Another question I asked myself is when I questioned the cashier about the receipts. I asked them, why can't you just reprint it and I am happy to pay for the paper and ink cost. He first claimed it wasn't saved in his system that he had to contact another office precisely  where the money has been sent to (despite him being the HQ of UK and I have sent the money from this particular branch) I asked him why is it not saved in your system he then said its too old(seriously 18 months is to old? ) I advised that he should always have records of a transaction for audits and such anyway he made less and less sense to me (we were talking in our native language but I do not speak it well enough and his English was extremely bad ) I told him I would call around and get back to him.

Few days after my wife who speaks more fluent in my native language tried her luck, well she made some progress after going back and forth ( ie. if you lose a birth certificate you pay money if you lose you a receipt you pay money!   )   He told the Mrs that he would get the receipts for her and somehow managed to get all the receipts within 1 day lol and called my wife to collect it, only for us to go there and him asking us 180 pounds  , he seemed confident he could charge us this amount.

So my question is, is it legal for that particular business to charge me this ridiculous amount for few receipts that are probably digitally saved? 
What am I my chances to challenge him to give it for free using the legal route?
I have to get a better understanding with your viewpoints guys,  thx again!

eskbanker

What are the terms and conditions of the service you signed up for?  Just because one company provides a facility without charge, that doesn't mean that another has any obligation to do so, unless there are overarching regulations that they have to comply with, so what actual grounds do you believe you have for challenging the quoted cost?

zonnard

I need to read them tbh, I have emailed the manager asking for the full terms and condition of the service, i went on their website but there isn't much apart compliance and service section with a few sentences such as" Conducts its business in a transparent and customer-friendly manner". I doubt of the latter

I believe that I should not pay it because I ALREADY paid for his service I assumed, I send the money and paid the agent some fees. But To charge me for a receipt at an inflated price is unfair I think its a no-brainer.  Imagine you go to a shop ask for your receipts and they tell you sure 10£ for your receipt!  my avocado is cheaper than the receipt yu'd exclaim!
  They have no reason to charge me this amount and they have not clarified it in the beginning that they charge me for receipts if needed for a second time. My receipts themselves had never the terms and condition on it also.
Not sure if my points are valid but again forgive me if. I sound ignorant on the topic, trying just to sort it out   
Do you think it is fair? and if you think it is not what can you advise me plz as a next step? 

colsten

To give you a comparison, a High Street Bank would charge between £5 and £10 per duplicate monthly statement. As you are talking about 18 months worth of duplicate transaction slips, as well as for a Reference, £180 does not seem unreasonable.

colsten

Here is what MoneyAdviceService say about charges for bank services

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/bank-fees-at-a-glance

zonnard

Loving the replies guys, thanks a lot., colsten thx a lot, didn't know those stuff.
So now I can see that, yes they can charge me this amount,
but can I dispute that they have not published it on the receipt or anywhere for the customer, i can't find it anywhere not even on the website? 
I would not have used their service if it was made more transparent but because of the fact that they have hidden these charges(not published on the website or the receipt or any paper given to me) i couldn't know

Thrugelmir

zonnard said:

What am I my chances to challenge him to give it for free using the legal route?

Zero. May cost you more than simply paying for the service you require. Next time to file the receipts properly in a folder or file. Rather than throw them away. 

eskbanker

zonnard said:

Loving the replies guys, thanks a lot., colsten thx a lot, didn't know those stuff.
So now I can see that, yes they can charge me this amount,
but can I dispute that they have not published it on the receipt or anywhere for the customer, i can't find it anywhere not even on the website? 
I would not have used their service if it was made more transparent but because of the fact that they have hidden these charges(not published on the website or the receipt or any paper given to me) i couldn't know

Feel free to name the company on here - others may already have posted about them or be aware of where to find their terms, but there is no obligation for any company to print their Ts & Cs (or even where to find them) on their receipts - it's implicit that you accept them by engaging with the company and if you want to read their terms then you need to find them before spending money with the company....

zonnard

Ok, well, at least I learned new stuff the hard way.  And I choose to name the company. Because it's a real pain I'm really feeling gutted and cheated over a simple service but I understand your points. 
The company is called Amal Express LTD, I am naming them because I am 200% sure they have charged this money to many customers who asked for a duplicate receipt for different reasons. They should know that if you need your receipts to be reprinted Amal express charges you £10 for each receipt to reprint. I won't use them again, and won't recommend ANYONE to use AMALUK (amal express) as a remittance service to anyone until this changes to a more transparent approach.

I already try to support family members abroad that's the only reason I use the service, and for a company to take advantage of this is gross.  

Thanks everyone for your reply.

dj1471

colsten said:

To give you a comparison, a High Street Bank would charge between £5 and £10 per duplicate monthly statement.

Which banks charge that much?

In my experience they typically charge around £3 to £5 per request, which can include an unlimited number of statements. Some do charge per statement but with a cap. This is something I've had to request a number of times from a number of different banks, most recently RBS (£3 per request, but they waived the fee) and Monzo (free, though not a highstreet bank).

colsten

I am going by what I read on the MSE Forum over the years. However, a quick check on the current policies shows that many banks now asks users to download their statements and print them off themselves. That's what I do if I ever need a printed copy, which is very rare. Obviously, printing your own isn't completely free, either.