My Experience with The Currency Club

SaverSpender7

I just wanted top post this as a heads up to others. If you are after some foreign currency and use the MSE comparison tool, The Currency Club often come out towards the top of the list or providers. I have used them a number of times in the past and been happy. However, I ordered currency from them last week, it has not arrived and they are refusing to refund me.

This is what happened: I ordered £300 worth of foreign currency and paid for it via bank transfer. They despatched the same day via "Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed 1pm". Track and Trace shows that money arrived at my local delivery office the next morning and was "Ready for Delivery" and should be delivered by 1pm that day. Since then a week has passed, I have not received the money and nothing has changed on Track and Trace. It has clearly gone missing. I contacted The Currency Club the next day. It is not their fault but I was expecting that they would either refund or resend the money. Instead, they have raised an investigation with Royal Mail and refuse to reimburse me until they have been reimbursed by Royal Mail. The predicted timeframe for this is a month from the date that I ordered the currency. This is too late for the currency to be of any use to me as I will already have gone on holiday. Meanwhile I am down £300 with nothing to show for it and I still need to buy some currency.

I have tried everything I can think of to persuade them that whilst it makes little difference to them whether they refund me now or later, it makes a big difference to me. They are refusing to take any action.

Needless to say I shall not be using them again. I have raised a complaint with The Financial Ombudsman but don't have any realistic hope that anything will happen before my holiday.

If anyone has got any suggestions, please let me know.

tetrarch

I've never used TCC but to be fair to them the process is clearly laid out in their T's and C's that you must have accepted

https://www.thecurrencyclub.co.uk/terms-and-conditions

Regards

Tet

eskbanker

I could be wrong but imagine that their peers and competitors will operate in similar ways - it's understandable that due process needs to be followed for cash that's reported to have gone missing in the post and this inevitably takes time, with the duration largely being outside the sender's control, not that that's much consolation to the intended recipient of course.

Presumably there are instances where such investigations prove that the package was delivered, despite the RM systems not initially showing this?