Prepaid Travel Cards guide

Andrew_Lawrence wrote: »

I have just bought a FairFx card on line ready for our trip to the states.I am in a big group and I only wanted it to cover for meals out etc so decided circa £600 would be enough. Heres the thing, - if you buy more than £500 they give you £35 discount. Even although their exchange rate before the discount is a bit off the best you can get, I ended up with $729.60 for £565. So thats an exchange rate of just over $1.29 to the pound. Todays best exchange rate otherwise was 1.224 OK it only works out that welll if you go just a bit over the £500 (dont forget the discount goes off after you input so I guess you would need to order £540 as a minimum). I am just wondering wetherr to get others on our trip to do the same - it seems unbeatable as long as you do a bit over £500 on each new card.

Looks good.

megansgran wrote: »

I went to a TC branch on friday to open a lyk prepaid card, didnt have my passport so couldnt do it the exchange rate was 1.8 in the shop, and on line, went back the day after, exchange rate on line was 1092.3 on line. Loaded £1000 on card. went home to register card and balance was only £1000.2o euros meaning the rate in shop was level yet still 1092.3 on line, do you think I should be able to contest this in shop as they didnt tell me the rate was so low, feeling really unhappy as have lost out on £90

Can barely understand what you have written.
Hard to understand how people only seem to find this forum after they have made a blunder, instead of using it's resources to get the best deal in the first place.
You have been a member for nine years!
You can contest as much as you like, but their online exchange rate, (poor as it is) is never the same as the rate you get in-store. They likely have boards in store showing their abominable rates.
It's sharp practice, but both TC and the Post Office do it. They need to pay for the bricks and mortar premises. Which is why no one recommends them here and most things are done on-line.
Why didn't you order online and then pick it up in-store to get the on-line rate?

Maybe it was of this you fell foul;

Our Reserve & Collect rates are available for currency pre-ordered online only. In-store rates may differ. The rates displayed are guaranteed only if currency is collected before close of business today, if not, the Reserve & Collect rate of the day will apply. Currencies other than Euros and US Dollars may not be available to collect today, please phone your chosen store to check availability of other currencies before reserving online.

But that still would not explain the low rate.

So perhaps you simply did not order online in the first instance


So I have no idea what you should do next. You can complain to Head Office, but since they sanction the policy, you could be on a hiding to nothing.
1.8 in the shop? Really? Perhaps you meant 1.08. If it was 1.08 in the shop, why do you think you have only received 1.0002?
Have you asked them for a breakdown? It does seem ludicrously low, even for TC. Perhaps you have made a mistake and the £1000.20 is what you actually paid, rather than your Euro balance.

If you really felt the need to purchase Euros and put them on a Prepaid card, FairFx and WeSwap are giving an extra £35 and £30 worth of currency respectively, for loads such as yours.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-travel-cards/

As least you know where the forum is, in so you know where to ask, the next time.