Travelers exchange paper for prepaid
ravelex has been in the foreign currency exchange business for 32 years. It boast of having over 700 outlets for their foreign currency products worldwide, a little over 160 in the United States alone. The international company, headquartered in London, provides products and services that make money-handling more secure and convenient for business travelers and those traveling for pleasure.
At the Prepaid Card Expo held in Las Vegas, March 3 to 5, 2008, Travelex debuted its latest product, the Travelex Cash Passport – the first prepaid foreign currency card in the United States. Already in usage in 20 countries worldwide, the card allows travelers to load amounts in either euros or British pounds, to be used just like a debit card at the POS.
The Cash Passport became available to American consumers May 1, 2008. According to Christopher W. Russell, Executive Vice President of Outsourcing, Americas, for Travelex, 46 cards were sold that first day, which Russell said far surpassed the first day sales of any of its previous card launches from anywhere in the world.
"Usually it takes awhile to see these things ramp up and building momentum," Russell said. "We've sold almost 800 cards and they've only been out there for two weeks."
It's the type of product that Russell believes virtually sells itself. "People standing in line will hear the explanation of it, and what it does and why you use them for, and people go, 'Ooh, I want one of those, too.' The response from consumers has been overwhelmingly positive."
Triple the wins
Russell said the value of Cash Passport is three-fold. First, the card locks in the exchange rate at the time when consumers load the cards with funds. Therefore, there is no fluctuation in the exchange rate while individuals are traveling.
"You don’t have to worry or wonder what the conversion is and what you're being charged," Russell said. "And the rate doesn't affect you as much. The rates can fluctuate pretty dramatically."
Second, the card provides protection for consumers traveling in foreign lands. If cash is lost or stolen, that money is likely gone for good. If the card gets lost or stolen, however, no money gets lost. In most cases, Travelex will replace the card in 24 hours, Russell said.
Third, the card is MasterCard Worldwide-branded, giving travelers the protection and security in case chargeback issues arise, or, if the card is used fraudulently, travelers are not liable for the purchases.
"Prepaid cards are very, very fast in my opinion in taking the place of paper instruments," Russell said. "So, before [consumers] would buy traveler's checks to take their vacations. Today, they're buying prepaid cards.
"People are familiar with cards. Credit cards are used all the time. But, for the most part, especially for people who are budgeting, they will use a prepaid card as their mechanism for carrying around the cash that they want to spend on their vacation. It's not the smartest thing in the world to go carrying around a thousand dollars in cash anywhere you go."
Globetrotting for prepaid
In a keynote address at the Prepaid Expo, Laura Kelly, Senior Vice President, Global Prepaid Product Development and Management at MasterCard, called the Cash Passport a "terrific innovation."
Travelex also offers the Visa TravelMoney card – given the "Best Consumer Card Program" award at the expo – for leisure travelers and businesses funding overseas staff expenses. Another Travelex product is CashPax, which are wallet-sized packs of foreign currency (including coins) to help travelers pay for taxi rides and other immediate foreign cash transactions.
According to Russell, Travelex has seen phenomenal success with its products of late. "It's been a great year for us here in the Americas," he said. "The growth in the business has been incredible this year. We're at about 89 percent year over year increase in foreign exchange transactions this year over last year."
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