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“Passport to nowhere, thanks to Travelex”

Written on: 28/08/2011

Don't ever find yourself talked into taking one of these Thomas Cook Cash Passport cards. It is a fab idea but it just doesn't work out, in Mallorca at least.
I got talked into one whilst getting some Euros for a trip to Mallorca and thought that, as travellers cheques are a bit of a dying concept, this would be a really good alternative. How wrong can one be!
The first time we tried to use it we were in a supermarket. The manager was called asking us to prove it was out card, which is impossible to do. They asked to see our passport although I don't know why as this is not linked to the card. So we left the shopping there, went back to the hotel, retrieved our passports and returned to the supermarket. Then they asked why our name was not on the card and after trying to explain what the card was about, we did eventually get our shopping. Success, although this was short-lived.
We never did manage to use the card again, and were constantly asked to produce passports, sign payment slips to match our passports, explain to the manager how we got the cards and so on.
We admitted defeat in the end and found the nearest cash point machine to withdraw the remaining contents of the card, only to have the machine swallow the card!
Back in England, I went to retrieve the balance of the card and unsurprisingly the 2 people in front of me were also complaining about the card (one had been to USA, one to Greece).
Steer clear of this card - take cash or bars of gold!