Can I just request please that any members who wish to advise on this subject keep to the topic rather than suggesting other cards/currency to take (as there is another thread for that ).

Thank you!

Pippy

Found a map with 9 ATM's on them, but it seems I'm not allowed to show a pictures of them here or a link - pity that could have been useful to others as well.

Anyone used a card like this for their whole holiday and how successful was it?

the ATM finders for both VISA and MASTERCARD can be found in the how to find an atm topic in the general holiday enquiries forum

wizard

Thanks Wizard

There are loads of ATMs in PDC. Although I wouldn't touch one of these cards with a barge pole.

I'm not allowed to tell you a better alternative, apparently, but try searching for "Nationwide"

robertk wrote:

I'm not allowed to tell you a better alternative, apparently, but try searching for "Nationwide" ;)

You said the 'N' word!

I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!
I must not post about Nationwide!

You may post all about it HERE

Anyway, back to the Thomas Cook card!

Pippy

Hi all,

Am back from my 2-weeks now, had a great time.

Well the card worked quite well and there were plenty of ATM's to draw money out from, saved using travellers cheques and having to get them changed up. Noticed a lot of people using ATM's so obviously a lot of people using something similar now.

Only down points were that it was only restaurents took them to pay for meals, bars never did. I was told this beforehand though. Some restaurents didnt take cards either, so always had to carry cash.

Also the ATM wouldnt give a 'balance' on the card, so had to check up on the Internet, but not a problem.

Another great thing about this card is... I was in east africa with a thomas cook card, i was robbed! I called up thomas cook and they wired the money on my card to me to the nearest western union, I wouldnt have been able to buy a new passport otherwise! I called my bank and they didnt even wire me the money. Defnietely worth it!

Re Thomas Cook Cash Passport Card, we have just returned from a holiday in Rhodes where I presented my newly acquired card to a Thomas Cook a rep who unbelievably announced 'Thomas Cook Cash Passport Cards are not accepted by Thomas Cook Greece.' When pushed for further information her manager stated that the Hellenic banks will not accept them due to the lack of indentation of characters on the card. I found that retailers, restaurants etc on the island would not accept them and a Eurobank ATM was the only one which would dispense cash. An email of complaint to Thomas Cook has produced a zero response. You have been warned!

Im thinking about getting one of these. So ill keep an eye on this post.

Hi

Re the TC Cash Passport, I have one reservation: should they be able to charge me what I consider to be a huge fee for reloading it ? Mydaughter is on a gap year and we were pleased to be able to have currency cards in US dollars, NZ dollars and Australian dollars for her trip; we kept the master cardand she had the extra one for her travels. Recently she ran out of money on the NZ one so I went into Thomas Cook to reload £400 onto it, and found that they gave me a much lower exchange rate then the one they were advertising same day for NZ dollars. Their daily rate was 2.3164 NZ = £1; but on the cash passport we were only given 2.1716! Cashier said to round up to £414.44 on the card, for 900 dollars.I thought that sounded a bit low, but hadn't checked before I went in,sowhen I got home I looked up the daily rate and they were offering the higher figure. It would have got me an extra 60 NZ dollars at the 2.3164 rate, so they were charging me about £27 to put the money on the card! This works out that you are being charged about 7% interest on the transaction I think, tho Maths not my best subject, which seems greedy to me and we weren't warned about this high charge when we took the cards out! At this rate wouldn't we have been better just using plastic debit card to withdraw money from ATM?
I didn't expect them to do it for free,but this excessive charge has put me off using them again - anyone got any other insights to this experience? The small print in their leaflet is very vague and didn't make this at all clear. I also notice that there's not much info about these cards if you ompare them on moneysupermarket they dont warn about this snag either! Card is run by Travelex.

My daughter recently took one of these cards to Thailand.
Someone else took all the money out of the account.
Thomas Cook said the card used was the spare one she took in case the original one was swallowed by an ATM.
The spare card was never used - moreover it was still stuck to the letter it came with!
Thomas Cook wont reimburse her, whereas I believe a UK bank would have done.

I would say dont use these cards!

We have had a similar experience to Scotty. My daughter is at present touring South America with a friend and has taken a Thomas Cook Passport Card, which we top up when needed. We have to pay in cash (GBP) at our local Thomas Cook shop, as debit cards are not accepted, this is then converted to US Dollars when the transaction is made. My wife paid in £350 on Tuesday which when converted came to $537. She then phoned me to ask if I would e-mail my daughter to say the transaction had gone through. I checked the exchange rate and was astonished to find that £350 at that days standard rate equated to $574 a difference of $37 or £22.50. I have since e-mailed Travelex (the card's operators) asking if we can pay in dollars, thereby avoiding Thomas Cook's low exchange rate but I was informed that ‘We can advise that it is not possible to reload the Cash Passport cards with a foreign currency and agents can accept only Pound Sterling.' My daughter informs me that she can draw money out using her credit card but this incurs a 3% charge on every transaction but with Thomas Cook charging the equivalent of around 6.5% this does not seem such a bad deal.

Hi and welcome to HT!

Be aware that withdrawing cash using a credit card is possibly the most expensive way of getting cash. It will be treated as a cash advance and attract interest at a high rate until it is paid off.

luci

We have used this card in the past on one holiday but found it a pain as not everywhere takes them including ATM's, you get charged for withdrawing and you can't get a balance from an ATM. We now transfer holiday money into a separate bank account and use our bank card. There are obviously risks with getting the card stolen but there are risk with everything in life. We find this a much better option for us.

Warning.. do not use Thomas cook travel cash passport... unless you are willing to loss out on your own money if you dont spend it...! Lost out on £27 ... never told us there is a but bk rate on it.. Be warned...!!!!

I would strongly advise against using one. I took one out for my holiday, only to be frauded, and have over a third of my money taken from me and spent by someone in Miami?! I was in Cyprus and took the card out then day before I left, therefore there was no way anyone could have got my details. I returned a week ago and still there is no sign of my money been returned to me, even though when taking the card out I was told if my money was lost or stolen it would be returned to me within 24 hours. The only help Thomas Cook could offer was to ring someone at home and get them to send me yet even more money.