Consumers Fight Back Against "0% Commission" Travel Money Advertising

LONDON, September 12, 2011 -

In a recent survey of over 1,000 consumers, 93% of people voted for “0% Commission” advertising to be banned in the travel money sector, as they found it misleading. FairFX.com, an online currency specialist who conducted the survey, have now formed a twitter-based petition to the OFT to put the ban in place. The petition can be found at act.ly/47e and in order to sign, consumers can just retweet!

“It seems that the lack of transparency in this marketplace has hit a nerve with consumers,” said FairFX CEO and currency expert Stephen Heath. “We think the OFT should enforce the ban and provide a better system for consumers to easily compare the overall cost of travel money. At present people are clearly being swayed by the misleading headline advertising tactics adopted by many providers.”

Regular traveller Jim Ford has previously been caught out with the “0% commission” buy-back schemes some travel money providers advertise. Referring to the advertising tactics used, Jim said - “It was and still is pushed at the stores, ‘Anything you do not spend, we will buy back at the original rate commission free,‘ Sounds great!”

However after his holiday, Jim approached the company again with the $1,800 he had left over- “I was then told that the upper limit for returning the money was £100, anything over that I had to return at the current rate of exchange. On returning them I got £236 less than I had got them for!”

Ann McCarthy, who manages the UK arm of charity ‘Let them help themselves’, had suffered at the hands of other travel money provider’s hidden fees and misleading advertising. “I have been sending out money to Uganda for several years now for our charity, and tried various methods.” Ann explained.

Ann found she was being charged high fees by her bank for small transfers and getting bad exchange rates as well - “Some are advertising as 0% but in reality there are additional fees taken from your card when using the ATM abroad and also they are giving a poor exchange rate.”

Please contact Ollie at FairFX for the latest progress on the twitter petition to the OFT.

• FairFX survey results are available in full and consumer feedback can be viewed here.

Full URL: www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=question&id=10150234362257164.

The survey results are available as a word file at your request.

Jim Ford Case Study is available in full upon request.

Jim is available for contact by journalists directly; please request his details from FairFX PR.

Ann McCarthy Case Study is available in full upon request.

Ann is available for contact by journalists directly; please request his details from FairFX PR.

FairFX CEO Stephen Heath is available for limited interviews upon request.

For all PR related enquiries then please contact Ollie at o.emery@fairfx.com or +44-(0)207-778 9327

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