Foreign Perspectives

Less than clear on almost all of the pre-paid travel cash cards sites is what happens when the card expires. In the case of the Post Office card it’s even worse as there’s a customer services line which doesn’t offer any option even remotely like “press X to renew” and Post Office branches have no idea what happens either.

In fact, nothing happens. Your card expires and you’re left unable to access the money. No replacement card comes out, there’s no notification or letter asking what you’d like them to do with the money.

What you need to do is to call the customer services number (on 0845 850 0077 or  +44 207 490 9717) and select the “change my details” option. That puts you through to a real person who can renew your card after you’ve gone through a number of security questions. Well, a LOT of security questions, for most of which your answer will probably “I don’t know”. Things like “what amount did you first load your card with?”, “what date did you last use your card?” and various other questions along those lines which I’m sure few people will be able to answer.

Once you get through that they block your existing card so you’ve no access to the money for, in theory, up to a couple of weeks but in my case for three days. The replacement card has your name printed on it but is otherwise identical to those issued in the Post Office branches; the expiry date on mine is only 18 months on rather than the 2 years that you’re supposed to get but since it’s free that shorter period doesn’t really matter.

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