Feedback needed on Bureau de Change providers

kissingsky

Dear All,

I have mentioned some few good Foreign Exchange providers.Last week I came to know another good Money Exchange that provides the good exchange rates.RAK Money Exchange in East Ham(London) seems better than some of the currency Exchange Providers based in Paddington and Victoria. They also claim to beat any high street foreign exchange provider.What I did first I asked the rates from different providers and then called Rak Money Exchange and unexpectedly they gave me the better rate.

bigbird1954

Totally agree ICE is crap..... sounds great online but store not helpfull

Driven

I have found that the best rates for cash are to be found at Covent Garden FX
If you are transferring money then it is well worth registering with Global Currency Service Limited I have found David & Ian to be very knowledgeable, professional and helpful. Their rates are extremely competitive and the company is authorised by the FSA.

Venusflytrap

kissingsky wrote: »

Thomas Exchange Global =1.1160
Best Foreign Exchange =1.12

So Best Foreign Exchange gives you better rate and dont know why the differene although being the same company.
Check also their contact numbers for Strand branc(Embankment)
Thomas Exchange Global(Strand Branch) 02072401214
Best Foreign Exchange (Strand Branch) 02072401214

But i dont know which company provides better services.

I can tell you that Thomas Exchange Global is one of the (if not the) best high street bureau de change. They also offer slightly better rates online if you book after (I think) 9 am and collect same day before 6 pm.

vince123

I found the services from Currencies Direct very good, and better exchange rates than my bank.

Found the link with online calculators here:
spanishvilla.com/resources/currency-exchange

Hope it helps others here.

- Vin

lukeinstant

Don't know if this is of any use to anyone but we had a great experience with a bureau de change in London who delivery, Covent Garden FX. Stupidly, I had left it to the very last minute but didnt want to rely on airport rates. I phoned them and they had the money with me by the next morning. Great rates and service!

Daybee

Used travelmomeymax.com to get best rate and came up with ChangeGroup at top of table. In a rush, didn't check and placed order. Ended up with a rate I don't think made top 10!

Checked again today and Changegroup still coming out top on travelmoney but when you go to their website the rate is a lot less. Others checked show travelmoney to be accurate.

Lost £10 but learned a lot.

Daybee
ps. delivery was quick

jaymaceye

Moneycorp Problem
My son attempted to purchase £1500 of Euros online from this company but when he tried to finalise the transaction, an error message appeared advising the address entered was not associated with his debit card.

However, the address for the application and the card were correct. Because he could not proceed further, he assumed the transaction was cancelled.

Later, on checking his bank account, he discovered over £1500 had been taken from his account. He 'phoned his bank to be told this was an approved withdrawal for purchasing euros.

He called Moneycorp twice on Wednesday evening to be told on each occasion that someone would call him back. They did not.

He called them again on Thursday morning and explained the issue. Once again he was promised a call back which never materialised.
He once again called Moneycorp late that same afternoon, only to be told someone would call him back. My son told them that he had not received the previous three call-back promises and if no-one called back within the hour, he would be reporting the matter to his banks fraud department.

Needless to say, no-one from Moneycorp 'phoned him and he had to call the fraud department of his bank and report the matter. They told him his funds would be refunded to his account within 3-days.

Take care with this company. I wouldn't trust them.

tekadri

Your report is unfortunately not very accurate. We have checked our records and, from the information you provide on the transaction itself, we believe we have identified who your son may be and the issue.

Your sondid attempt to purchase the currency on the website, as you describe. However,our address verification checks (AVS) returned a message indicating that the postcode entered did not match that on record with the bank. Whether your son mistyped it or whether the bank had a different postcode is something we cannot verify but we automatically decline transactions where the address does not match. This is for our customers' protection, including your son, should fraudsters attempt to usetheir information fraudulently.

We did not take any funds from your son's card and the transaction was cancelled immediately. Since your son's bank issued a pre-authorisation code for the transaction, they hold the funds for a period that can vary from 7 to 10 days or until the merchant confirms that it will not be claiming the funds. When your son called his bank, they would have told him that they would need an approval withdrawal (not approved withdrawal) from the merchant in order to release his funds.

Your son did indeed call on Wednesday evening and what our call centre seems to have failed to tell him was that someone would get back to him in the morning, as there is not much that can be done when the banks are closed.

Your son being understandably anxious, called our call centre before anyone had had achance to deal with the matter. He did then speak to one of our colleagues, who explained to him in detail that the funds were not withdrawn from his card ,that his bank was holding these because they have issued a pre-authorisation code and that we would be contacting his bank later in the day to advise them that we would not be fulfilling the transaction, asking them to speed up the release of funds.

We did send a fax to your son's bank on Thursday afternoon advising them of the same (the fax was sent again, on reading your post on Saturday, just in case).


So, in summary:

• We did decline your son's request to purchase currency because the postcode he entered did not match that the bank holds on record
• We did fail in not explaining to your son, on his first call, that he would get a call back from us in the morning
• We did fail in not advising your son that we had sent the fax to his bank when we did so
• We did not at any point, withdraw any funds from your son's account
• It was your son's bank that held the funds, as part of their own practices (which happen to be industry standard practices)
• We have no control, once we do send a communication to a bank, over how long it would take them to act on our request or even communicate it to the appropriate department.
• Evidence of all the above (including telephone recordings) is available on request

Whilst we apologise for our failing in communicating clear timelines and actions to your son, we reiterate that there was no wrongdoing and certainly no fraud on our part. Furthermore, although we are under no obligation to do so, we did contact your son’s bank requesting an early release of his funds.

Moneycorp is a trusted foreign exchange provider operating for more than 33 years. The security measures that have failed your son are put in place for his and other customers’ protection and we have no intention of relaxing them. We are clearly disappointed that you feel you have been let down by our services and we will make sure we reinforce our communication methods to ensure it is clearer and more timely in future.

joeedgar

For what it's worth, I would highly recommend bestforeignexchange.com

I ruled them out at first, due to them not having FSA approval, and not taking card payments. But after a failed transaction with fairfx and a glowing review of their parent company from a friend I took the plunge. I followed their instructions to the letter and received my money 2 days later. I repeated my order a day later and the same again, fantastic service all in all and I definitely couldn't see their rate bettered anyway

On a more negative note I would warn people against fairfx. I chose them due to their decent rate, FSA approval and the backup of insured card payment. However, when ordering I was presented with a message saying I had failed identification checks and I should contact them. I sent 2 emails, neither of which were replied to. I've lived in the same house for 3 years and all my documents are in order so all a bit strange, but the complete lack of customer service sounds a lot of alarms for me!