Feedback needed on Bureau de Change providers

leedspete_2

can someone help? by what time did you recieve email confirmation from Best Foreign Exchange to say that your currency was on its way?i am waiting here in anticipation of it now lol

CLIVE_WALDER

I normally use Eurochange. I did a quick calulation for £400 worth of Canadian dollars and their exchange rate beat Martin's Best Buy by $C32

sarah58

ICE website is often competitive and free delivery.

thriftybeatnik

No problem with Travelex in Newcastle x

poohmoney

I have used a company called Travelfx. Website seems to be very good with up to the minute rates, however when i wanted to get some Euros exchnaged they took 9 days to collect the special delivery package and transfer funds to my account.
When attempting to chase up the money I was given lots of excuses and they insisted that it was the post office at fault. WHen i complained, the manager refused to provide his name and put the phone down on me a number of times.
Luckily i did get my money but i was worried. Suggest you use someone more established even if the rates are a bit higher. Also wished i had looked on the Travel Money Maximiser first.

BTW, they also trade as tri-fx, mortgage fx and IMsfx not sure why they need so many sites, very suspicous, stay clear.

Tarry

I tend to use the Post Office to get my euros?

nadsmilo

I recently bought 500 $ from ICE, chose the company because of the comparison website. Paid with my Bank Card from my Bank Account, I have noticed on my Bank statement there is a charge of £4.50. This is a charge the Bank has made, I do think this needs to be made a lot clearer at ordering. Advise use the faster payment method with your Bank Account to avoid the charge.

love_cat

Just a bit of feedback on FairFX: I thought I had ordered a prepay card with them, and bought £500 worth of South African rand in order to get the free delivery and £5:00 voucher. Although everything said I had free delivery, when it arrived, the hard copy receipt showed a £5:00 charge for delivery.

I also thought from the website that I was ordering a card, however what has arrived is cash. I have queried this with Fairfx, but they simply state that they do not offer refunds, despite the fact that I want to transfer the cash onto one of their cards, (so they would get further ATM commission on it anyway). This has left me in a position where I will be arriving in South Africa at midnight, on my own with a large sum of money with me, or must pay another company to buy back the rand, before transferring sterling onto another prepay card. Either way, I'll be losing out commission twice.

Further to this, when I have email FairFX about the situation I have received responses which are verging on rude. I am not at all happy with the service I have received and will not be using them again.

catokelly

wakeywarrior wrote: »

I was tempted to use this company myself after reading universal excellent feedback on them.

However, checking at Companies House indicates that their accounts are now overdue by nearly 1 year.

This is a red flag sign.

If a company cannot file its accounts, should it be trusted to hold hundreds or thousands of your pounds? Remember if it goes under you may not get a penny back.

I am not saying it is a bad company or that it will go under, and no doubt some people will say many companies do not file their accounts on time, but late accounts are often a warning signal that all is not well.

MSE should warn their users about the significant risk of using any company that takes your money up front with no insurance scheme backing.

As they say, you pay your money and takes your choice. Is a 5-10% better rate worth the risk? Only you can decide. I will be going to my local Bureau and walking out with my cash in hand.

I also did some research. The company shares directors (and an address) with a company called Tor Currency Exchange Ltd and Dream Island TV Productions Ltd. I cannot post links but do a google search on these to make your own mind up on whether you are totally satisfied before handing large sums of money over to anyone.

Hopefully your post managed to put a few people off from ordering with Crown, as you posted it in August 2009, great foresight! :T

I agree that MSE should have shown a bit more caution before endorsing this Crown on their comparison page, as Crown operated totally differently to other Bureau De Changes on the comparison site, due to the fact that it was offering rates higher than the live market rates and 'sitting' on customers money for a minimum of 10 days and for up to a year - so that should have rang alarm bells. Other online forums, such as The Dibb chose to moderate their forum and used to post a warning link whenever anyone posted an item about Crown, the link simply warned customers of the potential pitfalls and risks of giving your money to company that has such a long turnaround time for you to receive your currency. At least with other currency companies, they despatch your currency as soon as they receive your payment.

mervyn67

Hi all. I live in the Portsmouth area (Gosport actually) and can recommend the local exchange bureau which is Intercash.
No fees or commission at all and a good rate.