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Has MoneyBookers Got Better Again?


Stuart
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Has anyone used MoneyBookers in the past 10 days?

If so, can you say whether their turnround times have improved again?

It recently took 12 working days for the money to move from my MoneyBookers account to my Britline account when it should have only taken 4 working days.

I want to move some more funds to France but I need to know if they have sorted their problems out first.

Thanks

Stuart
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  • 5 weeks later...
Sorry about the delay in giving the time scale on Moneybookers transfer, but we have just returned to UK.

We were going to France on Wed 21st July and on the previous Friday the money had not arrived in our CA account. It took 8.50 worth of calls to Moneybookers to get it sorted and the first 1000E arrived on the Wed morning. However, Money bookers, for some unknown reason cancelled the other 1000e transaction without being told to do so.

This involved another large sum in telephone calls to rectify, and some stearn words for it to be re-instated. Lo and behold it appeared in the CA account on the Friday morning.

So, slow they are, but a forceful conversation seemed to sort it out.

I will be looking for another method of transferring money to France before our next visit.


Alan
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>If so, can you say whether
>their turnround times have improved
>again?
>


NO NO NO NO NO.

I was about to post something to the effect of;

I have given Moneybookers every chance to get things right (i.e. stick to the delivery promises on their website) but they have (for the 5th time) failed to deliver money within 2 weeks. Anyone who uses them is exposing themselves to the risk of the money turning up after they need it. Quite simply the service does not work (to France) at the moment.

Also, when you complain by email you get a standard reply (in this case 2 days AFTER the question was asked), vis;

Dear Mr. Trollope,

Thank you for contacting Moneybookers service.

We would like to inform you that your withdrawal request has been processed successfully through moneybookers and you can expect the money to reach your bank account within the next few business days. Please accept our appologies if the delay might cause you any inconvenience.

If any further questions or concerns occur feel free to contact us.

Best Regards,
Moneybookers Team

My message asked where the money was & why they were having difficulty keeping to their delivery promises. It is the same as the reply I got the previous time I complained - obviously it is meaningless.

I hope that the Management of Moneybookers monitors this site, 'cos I a p****d off with them. There are alterntives & I would encourage others to explore them - I AM!!

Nick
http://www.aplaceinfrance.com
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  • 2 weeks later...
I think there is now room for cautious optimism!

I sent funds to Moneybookers from Halifax and as I could not see them in my Moneybookers account in 4 days I called them. Very helpful staff who took details and called back within 30 minutes to advise a glitch their end which they corrected immediately.

Then sent the funds to my Credit Ag account and they arrived in just 3 days.

Seems to be back to normal, but only time will tell if the service is consistent.

I shall be sending more soon and will let you know if there are problems.
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Re the comments about expensive phone calls, I always use the number they provide for if you are calling from overseas - adjusted of course for a call from the UK by leavinmg off the country code and adiding 0. That is at standard rates rather than the expensive rates incurred using the number they give.

More information on how to avoid 090 and 0870 numbers is available via an excellent and free web site I often use http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ which provides practical advice on ways to save money, although not specifically related to France.

 

Andy Philpott 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I completely concur with Nick. It's taken roughly 4 weeks for my money to be transferred to my Britline account. I received the same standard response that "your money can be expected to appear in the next few days."

It's a pity the system doesn't work better since their rate of exchange is generous, I believe. I wrote to them to tell them of the grievances that people on here and other forums are speaking of  but Moneybookers don't seem to care.

I'm not sure I will be using them again.

Adam

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Hi,

 

Whilst on the topic of Moneybookers, has anybody used their transfer system in reverse ie

Personal French bank account (€)

                    V

Moneybookers French bank account (€)

                     V

Personal UK bank account (£)

 

If so, how has the service you received compared to the UK->France transfer.

 

TIA

 

cajal

 

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I was hopeful, but no longer.

It took nearly a week to get funds uploaded to them - they had it in their system but said my Bank (Halifax) failed to quote the reference. I do not believe that as I set it up myself, but asked for a copy of the remittance advice from Halifax. No reply for them so draw your own conclusions.

Once they had sorted that out I sent the funds to Credit Ag and a week on they have still not arrived.

They ignore e mails, charge too much for phone calls to them to complain and have doubled the charge to send funds to France to Euro 3.50 (although that is still cheap.

I think I will revert to Currencies Direct who, although more expensive for the transfers, give a good rate and an efficient service.

Incidentally I too have suggested they look at the LF Forum to see the damage they are doing to their reputation, but if they have looked they do not seem to care.

A real shame as they were initially very good.

Hopefully the funds will arrive before I head to Provence next week!

Andy Philpott
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The worldwide currencies service seems to be similar to many others, such as Currencies Direct who I have successfully used in the past. The downside with all these is the UK charges (£15 for transfers under £15k) and the charges of Credit Ag for receiving the payments. Moneybookers scores much better of these points and I have to say that I always find their exchange rates very good.

It is just the very poor customer service, the telephone charges to complain, and the slowness of the transfers which irritate me.

On balance I will probably send larger sums over to CA using Currencies Direct in future as if Moneybookers are in such an appparent mess as evidenced by the problems which many of us seem to experience, in my experience the survival period of the business should not be overestimated.

 

Andy Philpott (83)

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I was beginning to feel a bit more optimistic as a result of Hillview's posting on the 14th but the last few posts have made me rethink (again).

I am not in a desperate rush to transfer funds while the markets seem to have taken a slight dip recently but I do want to find a consistently reliable company that I can trust before the spring, when I will have my renovation costs to pay for.

I suppose £14 is not too bad for a one-off transaction.  Mind you, once we have the renovations out of the way, I had wanted to send over regular small-ish monthly amounts to pay for the utilitiy bills, so these charges would make those transfers quite expensive.

Still, I suppose I could put it all in perspective and realise that there are lots people out there with far more serious things to worry about!

Stuart

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Has any one tried setting up two Paypal accounts, one to take from your debit or credit card here and the other to pay to your bank account in France. ? No idea if its possible (if there are two of you it may be easier I suspect)but it might be worth looking at and costing out - or is it too simple ?

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Stuart - I have never been comfortable using Moneybookers for significant amounts and have always used Currencies Direct for this as over the past 4 years they have provided a consistently good service and (in theory at least) the money they hold for me remains mine until they remit it to CA.

With Moneybookers, they make it clear on their web site that if they were to fail then I would be a creditor of the business with no greater rights to my money (which would then be part of their assets) than any other creditor. There is a get out on that for transfers under £1,000 where you can 'tick a box' to say that you do not accept that basis, but you cannot do so for sums greater than that.

Whether the get out would be effective against a Liquidator I do not know - at best there would be delays in getting hold of your own money whilst they considered their position.

There is, of course, no indication at all that they are in any financial trouble which would give rise to this; you would never know until it was too late anyway. However, given the poor service and absence of decent customer care to make me feel 'good' about using them, why take any risks at all?

I would say that if it is urgent and significant in amount then use other money brokers such as Currencies Direct, for non-urgent small amounts use Moneybookers but tick the box!

Russethouse - what is a Paypal account - I have not spotted that in the Moneybookers web site? Is it something completely different and who runs it?

Moneybookers do allow you to pay funds to them by debit/credit card, but there is an additional fee to pay and I believe there is a relatively low limit too. I have not used that service so cannoy speak with any authority on it.

Andy

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