A campaign has been launched to ban misleading travel money advertising.
FairFX, a leading online travel website, recently surveyed more than 1,000 consumers and found that 93 per cent of them believe that “0 per cent commission advertising” should be banned. Many holidaymakers have fallen victim to “buy-back schemes” in the past. Buy-back schemes typically advertise 0 per cent commission on any currency bought back from travellers following a holiday. However, the reality of such schemes is often very different and can mislead consumers.
Traveller Jim Ford approached a travel money company with $1,800 he had left over from his holiday, only to be disappointed.
“I was told that the upper limit for returning the money was £100, anything over that I had to return at the current rate of exchange,” he said. “On returning them I got £236 less than I had got them for!”
FairFX has created a petition to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on Twitter and has founded a Facebook Group looking for consumer feedback on the issue.
As with a number of other travel-related financial products, such as car-hire insurance and travel insurance, the costs are often higher than the headline figure advertised.
“It seems that the lack of transparency in this marketplace has hit a nerve with consumers,” said Stephen Heath, FairFX CEO and currency expert.
“At present people are clearly being swayed by the misleading headline advertising tactics adopted by many providers.”
