Travelex Offers America’s First Chip & PIN Enabled Prepaid Foreign Currency Card

http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon...nabled-Prepaid

Great news for those who have been frustrated by no Chip & PIN feature available to our US issued credit/debit cards. Though not as best as having our banks offer Chip & PIN enabled cards as an option, but at least we can stop worrying about having our cards rejected abroad; we can now purchase and top-up cash into Travelex EUR/GBP prepaid cards and use it with Chip & PIN. Rates are rather horrible though as 1000 USD only gives your 729 EUR into the Cash Passport, with a minimum of 250 USD to be put in. But YMMV; horrible rate but the sanctity of knowing your card will not be rejected abroad, or take your chances with your antiquated mag stripe only card.

Either way, at least we have a choice now and that's what it all matters; a big step in the right direction.




Full article below:

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December 01, 2010 11:58 AM Eastern Time
NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Today, Travelex, the world’s largest non-bank foreign exchange currency provider, introduced America’s first prepaid foreign “currency cards” available in Euros and British Pounds that utilizes chip & PIN technology.

“There is a growing demand from the American traveler for technology compatible with what merchants are utilizing abroad”
.Travelex’s new chip & PIN Cash Passport™ MasterCard revolutionizes the way Americans carry foreign currency abroad, providing technological compatibility with overseas merchants that have migrated towards chip-based transactions. The new Travelex card requires a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to complete chip-based transactions, offering a safe and convenient alternative to cash, ATM or credit cards. Additionally, the card is PIN and signature protected and is not connected to the cardholders’ bank account, thereby minimizing the risk of identity theft in the event the card is lost or stolen. The card will also still include a traditional magnetic stripe, for those merchants not yet using chip & PIN technology.

“There is a growing demand from the American traveler for technology compatible with what merchants are utilizing abroad,” said Jon Dario, president of Travelex Currency Services Inc. “Much of the global market has already moved away from magnetic-stripe cards. Travelex’s new chip & PIN cards offered in Euro and British Pound Sterling will provide the same level of technical compatibility for U.S. travelers that many other international travelers currently enjoy.”

Chip & PIN technology is universally used throughout major European markets such as the United Kingdom, France and has recently become the standard in Canada. The chip & PIN system has already proved to reduce fraud in many European countries.

Travelex’s chip & PIN Cash Passport™ allows leisure travelers to pre-load travel money onto a reloadable card for convenient use in millions of ATMs, shops and restaurants worldwide where MasterCard is accepted.

Cash Passport can be loaded and reloaded with a choice of two currencies: Euro and British Pound Sterling. In addition, the Cash Passport comes with 24/7 Global Emergency Assistance and can be replaced within 24 hours if lost or stolen.

For more information on Travelex or to locate a Travelex retail store to purchase the new Travelex chip & PIN Cash Passport, visit www.us.travelex.com.

About Travelex:

Travelex is the world leader in the foreign currency exchange business, with more stores, more airport relationships, and more annual transactions than any competitor. Travelex has more than 700 retail stores across 30 countries at key airport, seaport, rail and tourist locations. Travelex is also one of the world's leading providers of outsourced travel money to banks, credit unions and travel agents. Among the company’s innovative services is Cash Passport™, which allows users to pre-load their travel budget onto a convenient card for safe and convenient use in millions of ATMs, shops, and restaurants worldwide. Cash Passport is PIN and signature protected and is not connected to the user’s bank account, thereby minimizing the risk of identity theft due to the loss or theft of a Cash Passport.

The Euro and British Pound Cash Passports is issued by West Suburban Bank®, pursuant to license by MasterCard International.


Contacts
Lou Hammond & Associates
Michelle Horn / Terence Gallagher
212-891-0267 / 212-891-0211
[email protected] / [email protected]
or
Travelex
Maria Brusilovsky, 347-453-9041
[email protected]

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Surprisingly good rates when purchased online. Great find!

Question is if I can buy and top-up a Travelex C&P enabled Euro card and when I go to the UK, will it will allow me to make purchases at the EUR/GBP exchange rate?

Or say if I have 20 EUR left inside the card, can I make purchases in the US using the mag-stripe on the back at the EUR/USD rate? :D

Unless I'm missing an alternate way to purchase, it claims it will show up as a cash advance.
I guess if I used a debit card then that's probably not an issue.

Yes, + 5.5% ... that's their standard charge. Whee! :p

Full fees:
http://www.cashpassport.com/1/Global...imits_chip.pdf

Great.

Plunking down a few thousand on a prepaid EUR and GBP Travelex card with Chip & PIN capability sounds good enough for me at this moment; no more frustrations for my trips to Europe now!

If US banks start asking why I haven't been using much than before, I can now say Travelex offers something more secure and more globally accepted payment method. Hopefully this will make them think otherwise on how much money they are missing out from international travelers. ^

BTW, here are the direct links to Travelex's Cash Passport w/ Chip & PIN for Americans:
http://www.cashpassport.com/1/en/us/...Cash-Passport/
http://www.cashpassport.com/1/PageFi...20PIN%20US.pdf

With online banking, you can easily pay back that "cash advance" within a day from your bank. Buy $1000 worth of Travelex Euro CashPassport debit Mastercard with Chip and PIN via your Citibank AAdvantage Mastercard, then set up online billpay for the next business day to pay $1000 from your bank to your Citibank credit account. :D

My bank is offering better EUR/USD rate than travelex, plus with that 5.5% thing, think will pass. Does not one bank realize if they offer the chip and pin, their servers and telephone switchboards would melt from the torrent of people applying for it. The other thing I wonder if they realize, the people really wanting these cards are most likely bigger spenders.

... and pay the cash-advance fee to your card? Bleah.

I never had a problem being dinged with cash advance fees as I give them a call before it goes through and promise to pay within a certain time period.

I once needed $200 worth of local currency as an emergency cash advance from my Citi AAdvantage Card in Kenya. I called Citibank beforehand that I was putting it in the ATM as we speak in order to withdraw as cash advance and asked them to waive the cash advance fee as I was also ready to go online to repay back that $200 immediately from my BofA checking account. Got my $200 as cash advance, repaid $200 from my BofA online billpay to Citibank the next day, and cash advance fee was waived. Simple.

Basically, if there's a short time between the "cash advance" transaction and the repayment of the amount, they can simply re-adjust that "cash advance" to a "credit charge." Nothing different from paying for your airline tickets with your credit card and paying the amount in full the very next day through online banking.

Was this more than once, and/or recently? The whole point of a cash-advance fee is that it's a major revenue source for cards. It's not "getting dinged" like a late fee that you might talk your way out of, it's an actual product marketed and sold as such. This would be like talking your way out of the price of a quart of milk. If you're a good customer, and are known to the shopkeeper, maybe you could do this once. But to say that you could never have a problem "getting dinged for milk" would be a stretch.

The earlier poster has this right: if you buy money on a card, use a debit card. Most point programs don't give you points for cash advances anyway.

For a while there some cards would do balance-transfers without a fee, but that's pretty much gone now too. And we're drifting on the topic ...

I haven't studied the terms carefully, but I think a more cost effective strategy would be to purchase a Travelex card with the minimum funding ($250 ?) to use if you encounter an automated purchase point (e.g. petrol pump or train ticket machine) which will not accept a swipe card, but otherwise continue to use a swipe card with no foreign transaction fee.

On recent trip to London and Frankfurt we encountered zero resistance to Chase BA VISA, but paid with currency in the Frankfurt underground and one restaurant which accepted no cards of any type.

Upon more digging on the travelex site it appears that you can't get the chip and pin card online, you have to go to a travelex location. Do they mean the ones more like a bank and not the kiosks in airports?

http://www.cashpassport.com/1/en/us/Buying-Your-Card/

Sent email inquiry to: [email protected]

I maybe at SAN towards the end of this year; I'll ask the Travelex station there for details while I'm there ;)

It was quite recent; the Kenya one was less than a six months ago. Done similar things in the past too and each time cash advance fees were waived so long as I called them beforehand and promised to pay it back the next day. But you could be right about the good customer thing; I average about $2000 charge on my card every month which I pay off immediately so a good track record might've been a factor. The best part was that since it was re-adjusted from a cash advance to a regular credit charge, I got the miles as well. ^