Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Straightforward to buy, some excellent "helpline" staff |
| Disadvantages: |
Failure to activate, absence of 24 hour qualified support, no back up |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
This product, promoted as "the safe and easy way to carry cash abroad", appears perfect for young people embarking on foreign travel, and the claim is no doubt sometimes fair. The card is sold in Foreign Exchange branches of the Post Office and, after loading up initially with £250+ worth of currency (sterling, euros or US dollars) should be able to be used at Visa Electron outlets worldwide for cash, purchases and
services. A further attraction is that it can, theoretically at least, be topped up with £50 at a time via the phone* or at a branch - potentially by family or friends if necessary. This was probably it's main recommendation from my point of view.
The advice that "you can pop in...and walk away with your card" is also accurate but doesn't mention that it cannot be activated for up to 2 days. When we phoned 24 hours after purchase to activate the card the details weren't recognised. As my son was due to travel the following day we contacted the helpline and were told to try again the next day - the day he began his journey. In fact 6 days and countless phone calls later my son's card still could not be activated because of computer problems at the Post Office where it was bought and he was stuck in Belize, a fairly remote destination, with no money.
When things do go wrong the Post Office are frighteningly unable to cope. The "24 hour helpline"staff, while generally willing and sympathetic, can only actually attempt to resolve problems when the financial team are available i.e. not at weekends, evenings or bank holidays, and, in the event of computer failure, can offer no practical alternative to "waiting for an engineer" - we waited a further two days and were then informed that the files had been corrupted and that the data may have been lost. When asked (four days after purchase) how the situation could be progressed more rapidly, considering my son's dangerous position, one operative suggested writing to the Post Office complaints department - not a very helpful suggestion given the urgency of the problem and their current industrial action.
I have been assured that this kind of occurence is rare but I know from experience that computer failure is not that unusual and am concerned that an organisation of this size has no back up arrangements in place. If this is how they (fail to) deal with a fairly routine glitch in a Post Office branch what are the chances of their being able to efficiently "courier directly to your holiday destination" a replacement card in the event of loss or theft? From initially appearing the ideal product the Post Office Travel Money Card became a source of anxiety, frustration, endless unproductive phone calls and a ruined holiday.
The card was finally activated a week after its purchase and after I had already begun arrangements to wire money to my son in Belize, no mean undertaking given the difficulty of communicating with him in such a remote area. We have received no apology or recompense, in fact far from it - the Post Office decline any responsibility and appear very keen to disassociate themselves from their Travel Money Card when things go wrong.
The Post Office brand still carried for me an impression of reliability and accessibility which it no longer deserves - they are not competent to provide financial services.
* Apparently top ups take up to 48 hours to process so warn your kids not to leave it until they're already out of money!
