Left for 3 days with out any money, Thanks to the Thomson travel money card!

“Left for 3 days with out any money, Thanks to the...”

Written on: 18/07/2011 by danii

This is a draft of a complaint i will be sending to Thomsons so please ignore any mistakes but this is my experience:

Cash (euro)

Given different rate to site 1.05 euro to 1 pound, internet 1.1067 to 1 pound. no signs nothing up in the shop. Asked for exchange rate lady jumped right into sales mode and never got round to telling us the rate and so gave us 1.05 and didnt notice just wanted to get back to work as she went on and on, good sales trick if you ask me. Oh and when we left had an extra £3.95 buy back fee too!


Thomson Travel Money card (euro)

We were originally hesitant about getting a travel money card as we are aware that there can be a lot of problems with cards abroad but after a lot of persuasion and a high recommendation by your member of staff. She said that there was no way there could be any problems as long as we used an atm machine with the Mastercard logo. We decided to get £200 pounds in Euros (cash) and £600 pounds onto Thomson Travel Money card (euro).We Spent all the Euros (cash) and had used our card for one or two transactions in the local shop/garage and had no problems. On day three when we came to actually draw out money we found an atm machine with the master card logo, i popped in the card and the machine ate it up immediately i didn’t even get to enter the pin number. I called the bank at which the atm was located (Alpha Bank) only to be told i would not get my card back and to call the card issuer. We got the bus all the way back to the hotel and called the Thomson telephone number for the travel card who told us they could send our money via Western Union (WU) Bank transfer, but it would take 48hrs for this to be put in place and we would receive an email when this had been done. We awaited the email with the details we needed, it stated that we could receive our money anywhere with the Western Union Logo. That day we went to Coral bay and found a place with the WU logo and gave our details only to be turned away as they only send money and don’t receive it, the next and only other place we came across in Coral bay also did the same and told us we would have to go to the Harbour and find some where there as there wasn’t any more WU places in Coral Bay. We got the bus Back the other way and got off at the harbour, we walked for 2 hrs Hungary, tired and hot and the 4 places we came across were closed or you could only send money the same as the 2 places in Coral Bay. We eventually gave up for the sake of our health, it was just too hot! We returned to the hotel and called back the help line. We were cut off three times and eventually found someone who wanted to help! By this point i was in tears and not feeling very well at all! The lady said she would send us through a list of places that you could receive money from not just send it! Why was this not stated in the first email? Why was it made to sound as if we could go anywhere with the WU logo? We ended up travelling all the way to the old town of Paphos as a lot on the list where closed or we were unable to find as the maps included on the email didn’t work when you clicked on them. We spent a whole day walking miles and miles trying to get our money and eventually found a place after 9hrs of searching.

Do not under any circumstances trust Thomsons for anything They not only messed our holiday up but left us with no money for nearly 3 days, and money we had was at the worst rate ever!!

tell everyone! friends and family! Do not use a Travel money card either!