Thomson Holidays Foreign Exchange

Never again!

Never had an overdraft in my life til i had this card.

I had an overdraft and wasnt told til a month later after my holiday by letter telling me i owed money and to pay up within 14days of the letter other wise legal action will be taken!

What happened was on the last day.. I checked my balance and transactions. I didnt want to leave any money on card. So i brought something and paid part cash and then used the remaining money off the card. So part card and part cash.

My account came up to 00.00 after i used the last amount... A month later i had a letter saying i owed money from the travel card.

I rang up and Apprenetly what happened one of the stores i went into i paid offline (which i didnt know) so it wasnt taken off my balance so it showed more money than it should have basically. So on last day i used up 'remaining balance' didnt even go over as i asked the lady the amount that was on my card so i could pay part card and part cash.

Had no problems after than transaction didnt have a warning or anything!

I wasnt even told this could happen if you pay offline in a store (which you dont know if your paying offline) and wasnt told you could get an overdraft. I just thought if you ran out of money it would block or reject a payment (as your putting money into the account)

I read everything about the card

Never again! Not happy wasnt my fault i checked my balance and transactions everyday.

I'm sticking to cash in future and debit card if i run out.

I was also told that the card was stuck at a fixed rate (the day i got it would be the cards currency rate) and she told me if the currency went up i would miss out but if it went down it wouldn't matter as the card would be stuck at the rate i had it on. Anywho i added more money into the account and while i did this the rate on the card had changed... Then it changed again!

Only good thing about this card was that it was accepted everywhere i went.

Other than that I'm sticking to cash like ive been doing everytime ive been to the states. I was persuaded to get the card and i totally regret it!

Luckily i had the letter on time because I'm moving out at some point!

We booked a 14 night holiday from the Thomson's from 9th November returning 23rd November 16 from the so called 5* A la carte brochure to stay at Sian Ka'an Hotel in Mexico and when we arrived we were expecting a very good standard of accommodation but be warned because the accommodation blocks Thomson put their client into are a long way off any 5* rating as was our first room 43305 which is on the ground floor smelling very damp and dark and a totally miserable place to have to sleep and live in for a 14 night stay.

In the morning we made complaint to the front desk and Thomson rep and were then moved to a third floor block room 42822 this room was slightly better because it at least had more natural light coming in but the room had no cupboard space for cloths storage and a large dead tree in front of the balcony.

Another very important consideration to consider for anyone else thinking of booking into this falsely described 5* accommodation and a fact you will not find printed in the Thomson A la Carte brochure that guest are not allowed to put any soiled toilet paper down the toilet in your room instead the hotel provide an open top unsealed bin in the bathroom for this purpose which is very disgusting by any acceptable standard.

On the plus side the restaurants and pool areas are very good and all the staff are always most courteous and helpful but the big failing is with the poor standard of accommodation and around 40% of guests arriving ask to change their rooms after being booked in.

On return to the UK we went through the waste of time effort to make serious complaint to Thomson after sales and as expected received a reply from the person I dealt with disclaiming all responsibility on Thomson.

This response is what we expected but Thomson will never get our booking ever again.

I've bought Costa Rican Colones many times from Thomson as their rates were slightly better than Thomas Cook. I have just bought some more in store. I was never quoted an exchange rate when I ordered or when I bought them. On the way home I did a rough calculation and worked out it put the dollar almost on a par with the pound even at post Brexit rates. I checked on their website and found a nearly 10% difference with the in-store rate. When I rang up to complain they told me the rate was the rate. On top of that they gave me such tiny value notes I have a literal brick of cash to carry around in Central America.

I am NEVER going back to Thomson again for any foreign currency 'exotic' or otherwise. I just wish I had remembered to go in a couple of days ago when I could have cancelled and gone to Thomas Cook.

Don't order in-store from anyone - use the click and collect on the websites.

Used once...no pin needed but that's how it is in usa. After that it was declined at every attempt to use. Bad communication from thomsons despite me travelling alone with little cash. They said merchant had blocked card due to pin. This was not the case. Big excuse because I had never got to that stage. Ended up finding capital bank and drawing all my cash out using pin they said was blocked. Cost me to do this. Not good. Spoiled my holiday with all the worry.

This company was recommended by a friend, and since we are in dire need of PH peso, we went and inquired for the exchange rate that particular day ( although we already checked their rate online, so we knew how much it would be )and surprisingly the rate given was a little too low as compared to their online rate /website). This being mentioned, the woman and another colleague "agreed" that they will match the rate we said ( which is actually their online rate of 1gbp= php55.44). We ordered for only 10k peso equivalent. When the day came to pick-up and pay the said amount, I was shocked and so disappointed that the Rep has given me a currency rate equivalent to only php48.00 (Mind you, she did not mention this during the time i picked up the money. Only knew this when I am already home and my wife asked how much rate they applied, considering that the peso has gone up a bit.)To cut this story short, they were not so impressed by the number of calls I made, and decided to appear back in the shop. I insisted, knew i was in the right. You can see in her face that she wasn't happy about it. Anyway, a REFUND was given.

Before I go, to the woman who tried to rip us off _ "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time" - Stick that to your head!!!!!

I went into my local Hitchin Thomsons where I proceeded to change up £300 into Mexican pesos's. I was quoted the exchange rate would equate to 6000 pesos. On returning home and checking the online calculator I found Thomson's were offering an extra thousand pesos (7000) for the same £300. I am annoyed with myself and certainly a lesson learned but poor form from Thimsons point of view. I won't be using them again.

I went into a local high street branch and asked for euros , the assistant was polite and helpful although it was quite late in the day .I paid cash for my euros and was not given a receipt , it was not until I returned home and went on the thomson online converter to check the amount when I noticed I was approximately 20 euros short . This may well have been an oversight but as I had no receipt and was on a very early flight there was nothing I could do . I was left feeling very disappointed and frustrated . So will not be using them again or recommending them . As I said it most probably was an oversight but had I been given a receipt it would not have happened .

I recently bought a money card for the use in the USA. I was told that I can get out cash using a ATM and that my money is safer by doing this. This was not the case. I used it in Los Angeles/San Francisco & Arizona. You cannot get money out of a ATM machine as you need a USA social security no to put in the last four didgets to gain access to it. Nearly all transactions that I made I was not asked for a pin number or a signature. I would never use this type of card again or would I recomend it to anyone. "You can't beat good old cash" there was also a number of stores that the card could not be used.

I ordered Romanian Lei to be picked up at the Uxbridge branch on 19th September. When I arrived to pick it up I was told it hadn't arrived. The manager tried to call to find ou what had happened and he was on hold for ages. When he finally got through he was told they "forgot" to send it. I was then told I would have to call up to ask for a refund. I told him I needed the money back immediately as I was going on holiday the next day. After another long wait they finally agreed to give me the cash back.

I didn't appreciate having all this aggrivation the day before I went away. And it looks like they don't want to deal with my complaint. Really shoddy treatment from this company.

I took out a prepaid card for a trip to the USA but after I arrived home I found out that my card had been used thousands of miles from my holiday. I contacted the card issuer on several occasions and eventually received a response saying it was too late to do anything. They said there had been several other rejected attempts on my card but they didn't think anything of it!!

I had hundreds of dollars on the card to save as spending money for a holiday with my wife and baby daughter but have been left with nothing.

Please dont believe this is any more secure than carrying cash on you.

I hope this prevents anyone else from being caught out.