Festival Goers Lose Out to the Tune of £7,000,000

Date: July 16, 2009

As more and more festival goers favour events in Europe, foreign money specialists Travelex Outsourcing warns that on average each British reveller loses £140 through theft, hidden charges and fluctuating exchange rates attending a two day festival.

The company, which looks after products such as the prepaid currency card Cash Passport, believes that during just one festival this season, British music fans could needlessly lose around £7,000,000. Steve O’Donovan, managing director of Travelex Outsourcing in Europe and North America said: “With tens of thousands of people due to attend festivals in Europe over the summer, security has to be a main consideration.

”At any one festival there can be as many as 50,000 people living in a small space. In such a busy environment, items are bound to get misplaced or even stolen, therefore making sure that your money is secured has to be a top priority in ensuring that revellers have a good time and stay safe.”

Prepaid currency cards, sometimes referred to as plastic traveller’s cheques, are becoming increasingly popular with holiday makers who want the convenience of a bank card as well as the security of a signature and pin. The Cash Passport can be purchased instantly over the counter and used in more than one million ATMs around the world and at millions of POS terminals in shops, hotels, restaurants and even online.

The cards can be loaded up with numerous currencies, including Euros, US dollars and British pounds. In addition, Travelex has just extended its currency range to include Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars and the South African rand.

Steve O’Donovan, continues: “A key factor of the Cash Passport is that it gives you the safety and security of traveller's cheques, allowing you to tap into our Global Emergency Assistance, so if you lose your card you can get emergency cash within as little as 20 minutes and a new card within 24 hours of the theft or loss being reported”.

Ends

Travelex Outsourcing
Travelex is the world's foreign exchange and international payments specialist. Operating through subsidiaries and branches in five regions: the United Kingdom; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Americas and Asia Pacific.

As one of the world's leading providers of outsourced travel money to banks, travel agencies and other retailers it provides products including its prepaid travel card Cash Passport to over three million channel customers annually. Through its world-leading automation Travelex offers consumers a full range of delivery channel options including telephone and web-based ordering.

Cash Passport can be purchased from the following outlets: Thomas Cook, The Co-operative Travel, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Cambridge Building Society, Derbyshire Building Society, Dudley Building Society, Leeds Building Society, Saffron Building Society, Advantage and independent travel agents, and Travelex branches.

www.travelex.com | www.cashpassport.com

For more information, please contact the Travelex Outsourcing press office:

Rebecca Lamont/ Rebecca Maund
07989 230737/ 020 7255 6400
rlamont@golleyslater.co.uk/ rmaund@golleyslater.co.uk