Anyone used Travelex Pre paid travel card

[mickeys_chick]

Hello

Just been looking into getting the american express pre loaded travel card (like travellers cheques but on a card) and came across a travelex card that works on the same principles......has anyone used it or had any experiences with it?? Its a Visa Electron and I know in the UK not many places take electron but is it more widely accepted in Orlando??

For anyone thats used the pre loaded cards do you have any hidden fees other than the ATM withdrawal fee?


thanks

 

[disneyholic family]

i don't know anything about these cards, but i have a few questions....
do you put all your money on one card?...that is, let's say you're planning on taking $2000......do you put all of the $2000 on one card?....
how does it work?
each time you pay for something, that amount is subtracted from the amount on the card?....that is, is the amount actually on the card itself, or is there an account somewhere that the card is linked to?
if the amount is actually on the card itself, what happens if the card gets demagnetized?......

 

[mickeys_chick]

Yeah thats the basic principle, you can have additional cards too for other member of the family. Basically all your paper travellers cheques are replaced with this card, be it travelex or american express, so more convienient but just wanted to see if anyone had any experiences of using it.....?

http://www.travelex.co.uk/personal/PPC_default.asp?content=ppc

http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/tcc/index.shtml

these may help you

 

[disneyholic family]

Yeah thats the basic principle, you can have additional cards too for other member of the family. Basically all your paper travellers cheques are replaced with this card, be it travelex or american express, so more convienient but just wanted to see if anyone had any experiences of using it.....?

http://www.travelex.co.uk/personal/PPC_default.asp?content=ppc

http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/tcc/index.shtml

these may help you

my fear would be that the card becomes demagnitized in some way (the strip stops working)....then how would anyone know how much money you have left on the card?...it seems to me that travelers cheques are safer...

 

[mickeys_chick]

I never thought of the it doing that......has anyone used these pre loaded cards and had a similar experience?? What would be the chances of it happening though what would cause it to do it or would the details not be held elsewhere like when it goes through for authorisation like a credit card?? Anyone??

 

[princess jackson]

We have got two of these, what we did, was take the Thomson offer, and loaded my card with $700, and got $50 free the card was free also.

Then the following day we did the same for DH, so we have two seperate cards, but we took the caution of buying travellers cheques as well and got some currency.

So we will not be left short if anything happens. And i refused to get charged at the ATM machine, for withdrawing money.

Really looking forward to using it.

 

[Kerryc]

We have got two of these, what we did, was take the Thomson offer, and loaded my card with $700, and got $50 free the card was free also.

Then the following day we did the same for DH, so we have two seperate cards, but we took the caution of buying travellers cheques as well and got some currency.

So we will not be left short if anything happens. And i refused to get charged at the ATM machine, for withdrawing money.

Really looking forward to using it.

Same here, we got 2 seperate cards, also got dollars and credit card. I'll let you all know any problems using it when I get back!!

 

[mickeys_chick]

Thanks for your answers when do you guys come back?? Were probably going to go with the Thomson offer as you pay £592 for $1000 and get $75 free and the card is free too.

The thomas cook offer is put £602 for 1000 dollars and get $100 free but the cards £15 so correct me if im wrong they work out roughly the same and there both american express cards which make me feel better as opposed to the travelex one which is visa electron.....

 

[angel659]

Hi

We purchased the card and topped it up whilst out there.

I would imagine if the card was damaged by the strip they can still enter in the card number in the front like they do here if we have problems with swiping it.

Only thing to watch out for is they dont top up the card immediately at weekends. We wanted to top our card up on a Sat and was told it wouldnt go on till Monday. Luckily we had travellers cheques. Also they did say if it was emergency they would do it, whether that would encounter a charge I dont know.

Everynight my husband would look through our receipts to get balance at each day so we knew how much was on it.

I thought it was a good idea and I would certianly use it. Also they took that card as a credit card to book fantasmic dinner vacation, one day I went to MGM and wanted to book it, but forgot my visa so they used that one.

No other charges other than atm. Dont top up the card using your hotel phone, its not free. We bought a phone card instead. You can always ring them just to get a balance.

Hope this helps.

 

[Miffy2003]

I never thought of the it doing that......has anyone used these pre loaded cards and had a similar experience?? What would be the chances of it happening though what would cause it to do it or would the details not be held elsewhere like when it goes through for authorisation like a credit card?? Anyone??

yes, they must hold the balance centrally somewhere This would not put me off getting one of these

 

[VSL]

For those that have used the AETC card...

- Do you use it much like a debit/credit card here (swipe and sign / chip and pin)?
- Can it be attached to your KTTW (key card) like a credit card can?

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
Yes you use your card just like you do a Debit card although they are not chip and pin enabled. You do have a pin number though if you want to withdraw cash from an atm. For reasons I don't know Amex don't recommend that you leave your card as security with a hotel. They suggest you leave a credit card as security but inform the front desk that intend to pay with your tc card at the end of your stay.

Mick

 

[BiGGy]

We used the american express travellers cheque card on our recent holiday. We had problems with the balance every day. What the retailers do is take off more than you have spent. Then a couple of days later, when the retailer has processed your transaction the real amount will be debited from your card. For example, if you use the card to purchase gas, the gas station will debit your card for the maximum amount that can be purchased, say $50 for example, even if you have only bought $20 worth. If you can check your balance online with american express, do so. You will see what transactions are pending. It does explain this on their website.

On our last day, my balance said that i had $20 left on my card so i took it out of the atm in our hotel.Most of the major atms would not accept the card. When we got back home i checked the balance a few days later. The atm had charged me $2.50 to take the money out and AE had charged me $2.50 to take the money out also. My card was then $18 dollars overdrawn. As far as we were concerned this could not happen.

I tried to put the balance in credit but you can only load your card up $50 at a time. I then had to ring AE and they used my switch card that i had used to set the card up, to pay of the outstanding amount.

Hope this helps

Doris(BiGGys wife)

 

[brer rabbit 28]

We used the american express travellers cheque card on our recent holiday. We had problems with the balance every day. What the retailers do is take off more than you have spent. Then a couple of days later, when the retailer has processed your transaction the real amount will be debited from your card. For example, if you use the card to purchase gas, the gas station will debit your card for the maximum amount that can be purchased, say $50 for example, even if you have only bought $20 worth. If you can check your balance online with american express, do so. You will see what transactions are pending. It does explain this on their website.

so hang on a minute.They overcharge you and then refund you days later?so how can you ever know what your correct balance is?sounds like madness to me

 

[BiGGy]

It is. I was always waiting a couple of days to find out exactly what i had on my card. DH used the ATM to get his money twice and was charged by both the ATM and AE both times but he knew exactly how much he had on his card. The ATM transactions seem to go off straight away.

Will be using normal travellers cheques next time. Cant be bothered with the hassle.

Doris(BiGGys wife)

 

[mickeys_chick]

Hmmmm some bad points noted there......if it wasnt for the free cash offer i'd prb just take travellers cheques but now im unsure.......any more from people who have used the cards recently in orlando? like can you use theTC card in like disney universal seaworld etc??

 

[BiGGy]

I used my TC card everywhere. Some places do ask for picture id though, like virgin at DTD.

Doris(BiGGys wife)

 

[mickeys_chick]

Think we definately decided on Thomas Cook American Express offer and some cash getting them on saturday so anymore feeback before then would be great!