The most frustrating experience of my life has been dealing with P.O.T.M. card customer service. No matter how many times you ask for the same thing, it never gets done. For example, I sent them personal documents via post or fax FIVE TIMES in order to either change my postal address or to have a balance redemption, they never got them or if they did, you end up talking to different people all the time so they never have a clue what your problem is. Unless you are a self-confessed masoquist, DO NOT USE THIS CARD EVER!.

This card does NOT offer the best rate, it has no online service capability (enquiry or load) and the amount that can be loaded in any given period is limited. For reasons not disclosed the Post Office have decided to withdraw the card in Feb 2010 and replace it with another. Hopefully the replacement will be a better customer proposition

I was advised that the Post Office Travel Card would be the most efficient way of handling my finances on a 18 month trip to Latin America. 10 months in, and having not received as much as an email, they changed their service and froze my account. All my money is now in their possession, and to release it they need me to come in and sign a form. From Argentina!

Our cards were suspended on 14th Feb 2011. A refund is promised by Mid April, trouble is that we are going on holiday before then. Repeated phone calls have not speeded things up. The Euro card cost a premium to load ( Buying rate ) and is to be refunded two months late in GBP so we shall have to dip into savings and pay another premium for our holiday money. Don’t trust the Post Office with your money. It robs you!

Agree with all the sentiments here. I’ve had massive problems. They have now kept my money for three months, which I have had to pay for by using my overdraft (and therefore have had to pay interest on that). Tip for anyone trying to get their money back: insist to speak to a manager directly. They will call the Bank of Ireland themselves and call you back. Ask them when you can expect a call back by. Should be within 1/2 hour. It’s not the Post Office that actually run the card, it’s the Bank of Ireland. The call centre you get through to is just a third party that answer calls for many other companies too. By the sounds of it they also run the helpline for the new card, so don’t buy that either. Thanks.

DO NOT GET THIS CARD.
Worst experience ever abroad with money. I went to France and despite it being a MasterCard, no where accepts it, forcing you to take the money out at a cashpoint (so the main reason you get the card in the first place) and then have to pay 2 euros to get the money you were told cold be used anywhere that accepts MasterCard (lies). Then, you can’t actually take all the money out as they seem to not let you go down to zero on the account so you basically give the Post Office extra money for a poor, inadequate service. I will be making a formal complaint to them. Zero stars for everything.

I agree with all the above. Customer services told me they would raise an investigation about my complaint and call me back that day. I have called them 3 times now and am still waiting to hear back!!! I too will be making a formal complaint.

Hi
I have just had one of the most embarrassing experiences of my life, when i had the mis-fortune to purchase one of these Travel money cards, for use in Europe

One of our first attempts to use this card was declined at a supermarket in Italy, which is slightly embarrassing, standing and holding up people in a queue.
Anyway we thought that this may have been a minor hiccup at this time and a first off occasion, how wrong we were.
In almost all other retail outlets we were refused by the retailer just at the sight of the card. These retailers indicated that they accepted mastercard by the signage in their windows, but refused acceptance of the money card.
We were reduced to asking if the card would be accepted, prior to purchase, and inevitably refused on most occassions.
In the end we used the money card for petrol purchases and toll road payments mainly, as these places accepted without question

Through the anxiety and depression created by this card usage we eventually had to cut short our trip / holiday, where we had incurred charges for a missed hotel booking and the extra expense of an amended ferry crossing, this amounted to approx £200

This amendment and curtailment of our trip also greatly disappointed our two grandchildren, whom we were taking to europe for the very first time

To say i am very angy that i was stupid enough to purchase this card is an understatement
I will not be recommending this service to any of my family,friends and associates

I’ve been waiting over four weeks now for the remaining £1,500 balance on my prepaid card to be paid. It was supposed to take two weeks, I called Post Office to chase and was told they’d made an error and this would be fixed and my payment sent. Two more weeks on, nothing. The card has been cancelled so I can’t contact the call centre to get an update. Have sent two emails – the only communcation left open to me – and no replies. Have had to take this up with the Financial Services Ombudsman as I’ve got not idea of how to pursue this now.

Absolute rubbish!!

Stay away from this card, i ended up getting charged everytime i wanted to withdraw money and ended up with an odd amount left. I contacted the post office expecting to get the money bac but was told that there was a redemption fee that was greater than the amount left!!! In total, from £300′s worth of euro’s i probably ended up losing sround £50′s worth. I think i’ll just take my chances with cash next time i go away!!

This has to be the worst card ever!! Was told at the post office that i need not worry when on holiday in America, as this will all i need because you get a good rate and you can top it up online! What a load of rubbish! First time i went to use it and the car rental company would not accept it. Second time,pin number no good(which the post office supplied) Could only withdraw money at ATM but could not check balance.The worst is when you try to log in, with your own password and number they supplied and it won’t let you then froze the card. Total waste of time,well done the Post Office!!!!

Do not get this card – very dissapointing, only used twice in hotel, there was no message on the card machine informing me of any fees, just checked statement to see I have been charged a small fortune, a percentage of how much you withdraw. Also, its a nightmare getting what you have left on the card back. Never again!

My son (17) has had a nightmare of an experience trying to use this card in Portugal. The card was registered to my wife as he is under 18, but all the money on the card was his. We thought as the card had no direct access to his bank account if it was lost or stolen the damage in terms of financial loss would be be relatively minor.

When my son tried to use the card after 3 days into his week long holiday the problems began. He put the card into an ATM with the Mastercard symbol as advised at the post office, only to be faced with a menu system all in Portuguese. He called home and asked us to contact the customer service team to confirm that they card was active and that there were no problems. This we did and it was confirmed that the card was active and that he should be able to withdraw money.

He went to 3 different ATM’s the following day and at various times was asked to enter a 6 digit PIN. As the card was only issued with a 4 digit PIN, he was understandably confued and concerned.

We called the customer services again and they re-set the card as it had been used unsuccessfully 3 times. Assuring us that there was no problems with the card we called our son and suggested that he tried again. He continued to have problems.

We called the call centre again and spoke with Elizabeth, and as this was late evening she had no interest in dealing with our concerns and offered no assistance whatsoever.

We called the following day to again be met with indifference to our sons plight and a total lack of apathy towards finding a resolution to our sons lack of finances. He was by now having to borrow money from his friends to buy food and drinks.

We eventually spoke to a representative who indicated that there must a problem with the PIN and he would change the PIN and send my son a text with the new PIN. After 6 hours and no text we called again, only to be advised that changing the PIN “was a sackable offence” and the PIN would never be sent via text.

This put us back to square one, no money for my son and no help from the call centre, we were by now becoming very frustrated. They then suggested that my son try to make an over the counter purchase to see if it was a problem with the ATM’s. We weren’t particularly happy about this. It’s embarassing enough if your card is refused in your own country, but to suggest that a 17 year old in a foreign country should try it, seems to be a “we’ve tried everything we can and now this is our last resort” option. Unsurprisingly, the transaction failed.

Day 5 of the holiday (Saturday) arrived with no resolution and no money and no open banks. We called and asked to speak with a superviser (Mohammed) who agreed that this should have been resolved many days ago and promised to get a solution as quickly as possible.

Well time passed and still nothing concrete happened. We called again and spoke to Mohammed and again he agreed that there was still a problem that they were trying to resolve, but couldn’t explain what the problem was and why it was happening. He did agree to call our son and confirm that they were working on the problem, but that really didn’t do anything other than provide a fleetingly short period of reassurance.

Sunday and day 6 of the holiday and nothing changed, everyone was running round like headless chicken and not achieving anything useful. More calls, more fruitless trips to the ATM’s, more money borrowed from his friend and no access to his money.

Monday, my son was due to come home today with the taxi arriving at the apartments at 6:00pm to take him to the airport, but without money to pay his fare he could be stranded, with no money, no accommodation and no transport. I called to speak with Mohammed, but he was on another call and I asked to be put through to his manager. I was advised by Stevie (female 23) that Mohammed was in a call and Ian Allen was at lunch, omething that my son could not afford to buy, nice touch Post Office!

I am sure it was the innocence of youth, but whilst trying to stress the urgency of my concerns, Stevie asked why we hadn’t considered making a back up plan if my son ran out of money and why couldn’t I send money by Western Union. I didn’t need a back up plan as my son had plenty of money, but he couldn’t get at it because of the problem with the card. She failed to see the error in her logic and passed me through to Mohammed.

At about 2:15pm on Monday again called the centre and asked for Ian Allen. He had decided that he was replete and deigned it appropriate to return to his desk and maybe do something. Not quite sure what he did because he was no use at all. I was fed up with pressing all the buttons trying to get through and asked him for a direct number, which he refused to provide.

He did however say that they were in contact by email with Mastercard technicians to try to resolve the problem with the card. He couldn’t give me a telephone number, but he would forward me their email confirming this action. Result! The email (received at 14:27) contained his direct telephone number, the one that he staunchly denied existed. So he was lying then. Not quite sure what he hoped to gain by not giving his number to me, but it backfired spectacularly when he sent the email. I’m sure he won’t be doing that one again.

Never mind I’ll do it for him. Ian Allen (alleged) call centre manager, but the job title at the bottom of his email is Forecasting and MI Analyst – Direct Number is 0121 410 4323 or email ian.allen@fisglobal.com

After quickly lossing faith with abilities of Ian do do anything productive or useful, I asked for the name and contact details of his manager. He appeared to want tio get rid of me very quickly as he gave me his mangers name instantly. A Richard Goudenhooft and he was available on the above number. Asked to be put through to him immediately, but unsurprisingly he was in a meeting and couldn’t be disturbed. Now call me sceptical, but I found that a bit too convenient.

Called back about 20 minutes later and was put through to Richard by Ian and he seemed a little flustered. Presumably I had called back before he had had time be be briefed fully (not my problem). He listened and blustered and I was astounded to hear him ask what solutions were available. I suggested that as Steveie had suggested that they send him some money via Western Union and that if the Post Office couldn’t do it than maybe he could do it from his personal finances. He didn’t seem to happy with this idea, can’t see why not myself, after all, it was what his staff had suggested I do.

Certain that I would need to speak with him on more occasions I asked for his direct telephone number which he provide without hesitation (0121 410 4326 – email richard.goudenhooft@fisglobal.com) and I said I would call him back every 15 minutes for updates. He couldn’t really do anything other than accept this. After all, my son was due to leave for the airport to come home at 6:00pm and without any money to pay for a taxi I had made it very clear they he (Richard Goudenhooft) was personally responsible for my sons welfare and wellbeing and also responsible for any financial agreements my son may have to make to ensure passage home via the British Embassy.

Anyway, this seemed to spur the team onwards and upwards, and after a couple more calls I receive a call from my son confirming that he has now been able to withdraw money from the cashpoint. Success.

I then have quite a discussion with Richard Goudenhooft, who called me for a change. We discussed in great depth what I expected from the FSA complaint process that he was commited to complete. I stated that I wanted full transcripts from all the calls from all the different telephone numbers we had used since this sorry saga started. I also wanted copies of all emails both internal and external regarding anything to do with the resurrection of my sons card.

I am waiting for the confirmation letter from the complaints team confirming my complaint is being investigated. Don’t hold out much hope that I will get much joy from that. However, am calling Richard Goudenhooft every day just to make sure that he is very aware that he cannot expect an easy ride and this complaint has not yet been resolved to any degree.

As an aside, this is not the complete story otherwise it would be twice as long as it is now!

Just seen on the Post Office website this card is no longer available.

Next stop Facebook!

My son purchased this card for a month’s trip to Europe. Initially he overloaded it, no advice offered at time from PO, and it’s taken 3 weeks for the money to be refunded, to home! Several ‘declined’ payments because Mastercard not accepted. Neither he nor I can view his transactions online because the message states ‘card use is restricted’. Now the customer services answering system tells me the details I am submitting are incorrect! Absolutely dismal service, never again. I shall waste another 45mins at the post office this morning attempting to resolve these issues, I don’t expect success.

I bought this U.S.A dollar card (well I had to pay a fee and that makes it a purchase in my book) for my son to use while in the states on a summer music course. I understood this would be the best way for him to use his money and for me to keep an eye that he had sufficient funds! MISTAKE!!! Although I was told all I had to do was to top up his card with dollars this is NOT exactly how it happens.
I still had dollars in cash from my drop off journey so I thought no problem I will use it to top up his card, WRONG. When I went into the post office and gave the chap behind the counter the details of my sons card and stated that I wanted to pay $200 on the account the problems started. Although the card was a dollar card I was told I would not be able to use dollars cash, well I could but it would be very expensive (his words not mine ) but it would cost me a lot of money because it had to be changed into sterling with a buy back rate of $1.83 even though the bought rate was $1.57. To then load it on the card the rate was $1.50 even though that days rate was $1.58.
My son was in America and I am in London so what parent is going to argue, I did say that this was a dollar card but was told, yes thats what you have to get, but that is not how it works. I am sorry but what part did I miss when I got the dollar card???
To make matters worse when the transaction that was made in cash was complete I was informed that the money would not be available for him to use until 10.30 am the following day. If this had been an emergency where he had run out of cash ( thats another thing, it is very difficult to get a balance of what you have spent, every transaction comes through around three days after,lets be real here,
we are talking teenagers and they never keep tabs otherwise they would not need us !!
Would I use this card again? What do you think…
The idea is good …. but in practice I think it is an idea that is trading off of a trusted Post Office name. SHAME ON YOU.

Absolutely terrible card. Please avoid!

Through their cancellation process (which I am going through because I have no faith with the card after it blocked me off when their online system stopped working), I have lost ~ £75 of the £500 I initially loaded!

Also, to anyone else with issues. The best way to get help is by going into a big post office and getting them to phone up and help you through the process. It is easier to get to talk to the big guy at the top through them.

In the belief that the British ‘Post Office Travel Money Card’ would be a system that is well supported I just loaded £400 onto a new card at the local PO. How wrong was I!
For three days I have tried to access to get access to my Travel Card account to set up a source of funding before leaving the country on holiday. I sent this email to them in frustration: -
“Sir or Madam,
I obtained a Travel Money Card yesterday and loaded it at the local branch.
I am very disappointed with the Travel Money Card Plus service already and I only just got a card!
My card has been ‘activated’, ‘registered’ and ‘upgraded’.
All I need do now is to provide my account on the Travel Money Card website with a source of backup funding, a debit card.
For more than 3 hours I have been trying to access my account to do just that.
Since 10:30 hrs this morning I have called the 08448094564 number and gone thru the security process laboriously about 20 times.
Each and every time, your system fails at the ‘login’ stage.
All I get is: -
[Sorry, there has been an error. Sorry your details could not be recognised. Please check that you have entered your details correctly]
If I don’t receive an explanation from the responsible Post Office department within 24 hours I shall return the card, withdraw my cash and I will start a blog on the internet condemning the Travel Money Card Plus as a joke.
Sincerely,
Ross Jeal”

I did get an acknowledgement but nothing since and no fix.

My advice therefore, has to be AVOID THE POST OFFICE TRAVEL CARD PLUS. Its a joke.
Instead, get a Santander Zero card.
Good Luck,
Ross Jeal

DO NOT EVER EVER GET THIS CARD*************************************
DON’T THINK ABOUT IT NO MATTER WHAT

These guys cancelled my card for NO REASON while i was in Spain.. well its a travel card so surely i can use it in Spain.

Not only did they cancel it

The automated system insists that you put in all your details to talk to anybody.. well i know the details are correct because i used them to log into my account o9n their web site..
It tuns out they stopped the card so the details don’t work to talk to customer service

THEY STOPPED THIS CARD WITH 1150 EUROS ON IT.
I could not speak to anybody NOBODY EVER ANSWERED 14 EMAILS OVER 14 Days

This is almost criminal

They ruined my trip i was stranded in Spain.

I am going to have to start legal proceedings to get my money..

Now then just in case you may think, maybe there was something dodgy going on.

I got my card from the post office. I supplied my passport my driving license and and 1200 Euros, taken directly from my debit card.

100% ABOVE BOARD, I ONLY USED THE CARD ONCE AND BAM!! I AM STUCK IN SPAIN AND BROKE

Yeah use the post office travel card.. NOT

my daughter has just returned from her holiday,which was totally ruined by the post office money card.she was unable to use it for the first three days,she spent her last bit of cash phoning them and us to find out what was going on.i also ran up quite a phone bill at home by ringing them.on several occasions.i was cut off after being put on “hold” for 15 mins.dont get this card.as it is useless,and you will end up out of pocket

Almost totally useless. Tried to use it in Netherlands and Germany but apart from a couple of petrol stations on autobahn and bank ATMs for cash (at a cost) the card was rejected everywhere. Thank goodness I had my bank’s conventional cards which were accepted without any problem whatsoever. Total thumbs down to the Post Office.

DO NOT GET THIS CARD! I was left stranded with no funds on holiday despite having paid for them. They loaded the first £750 I gave them but did not load on the £1003 I paid in cash. I waited weeks for a cheque but they only gave me £836 in return and actually had the cheek to charge me and exchange rate when they did not even make the funds available. i am now dealing with the financial ombudsman to pursue this. Please beware the customer service is truly appalling!

What a pathetic card!

I decided to get a Post Office travel money card for my trip to America, how wrong I was…

3 days into my trip I wanted to top up my card, so I went online, followed all their instructions and each time the transaction failed. I called customer services several times who said it wasnt their fault..perhaps it was my banks fault! My mother back home also tried to top up the card for me but they couldn’t allow her..so in the end I had to end up using another of my cards.

I am very dissapointed with the Post Office!

If you wouldn’t like to spend £60 worth of phone calls to post office travel money customer services trying to get an explainations as to why your card has been blocked or avoid being left stranded abroad without access to your money – AVOID THIS CARD!
I wish I had read all the above reviews before I got this card. Avoid like a plague!

I am absolutely disgusted with this service. Me and my friend were stranded in Indonesia because of the terrible service provided by the staff the the card itself. After having put £1500 from England on two cards and not receiving any, we complained. The adviser we spoke to said it was our fault the money can not reach us because of certain restrictions and in order to fix it we had to follow some directions. We followed the directions and the adviser said this would be fine. Still no money the next day. We had two cards just in case a problem occurred so my mum (who was sending us money out) put money on both cards. We rang up again and they said it would not work until the next month. Stranded with no money, even though there was money on both cards, the adviser said we can not access it! They said they would put the money back in my mums account, which they did not do!

We then tried again the next month, having to use other forms of money transfer. My mum transferred £1400. We were PROMISED this would be fine and work ok, there was no reason for it not to, we followed all directions given to us. Still it did not work. Me and my friend were once again stranded in Indonesia, both being young girls this was not acceptable. I wanted to make a complaint, I did so and they said I had to ring but when you are abroad with no money it is very difficult to use a pay phone!!!

We never did recieve any of the £2900 put on the cards. So when I return home I find the money in cheques, but I am missing £100′s from the cheques! I am trying to complain currently and sort out what is going on but this also is proving to be impossible. Because of the fault of the post office travel card we were stranded more than once without money and then to return home to the wrong amount is completely unexceptionable.

I am currently discussing how to take this up legally.

Wow, these reviews all ring a bell!

I had a similar experience when attempting to use my Travel Money card in the Canary Islands earlier this year. Attempted to withdraw cash at several ATM’s on a Sunday morning to be refused each time.

Contacted the call centre who informed me that the card had been blocked for a random security check, no problem I thought until they informed me that the clearing department was shut on Sundays and because it was a Bank Holiday weekend wouldn’t re-open until Tuesday leaving us with no access to cash. Was promised a call back first things Tuesday morning to confirm the card was live again. No call and couldn’t get back through to the call centre. In short 5 days holiday ruined, no cash and a company that couldn’t care less that it stranded a family abroad with no access to the funds trusted to them.

Anyway 4 months later, several letters, small claims forms filled in and ready to submit they have settled out of court for the ruined part of the holiday. My advice would be to avoid using this card and if you have had problems keep pressing for a fair settlement.

After lots of research I decided to use this particular card for my road trip in the USA… big mistake!

Very few stores actually took the card – not through want of trying mind you, but rather the tills didnt seem to recognise the card!

The only cash machines I could actually withdraw money on were Wells Fargo – none of the others accepted it and obv as mentions you couldnt check the credit at ATMs.

This was even more irritating when half the time the website kept telling me my sign in info was wrong and actually had to call the helpline from my mobile in the USA….whic resulted in a heafty phone bill!

Only time the card really seemed to work was at petrol stations when you did pay at the pump.

Off back to the USA again this year but definately wont be taking the card with me unless they make some major improvements.