One minute you could be enjoying the holiday of a lifetime, or a fruitful business trip, the next you could be caught up in a national emergency thousands of miles from home. In the last year or so, UK citizens have been caught up in everything from a tsunami in Japan to earthquakes in New Zealand*. And then there's the threat of volcanic ash grounding aircraft and political unrest. In any of these situations, running out of funds can soon become a real issue.
Carrying a Cashplus prepaid gold MasterCard® on trips abroad can be a real help in an emergency, because a customer can transfer money from another bank account, quickly and easily online and ready to spend the same day if from a bank using the Faster Payments Service. And if the person trapped abroad had the foresight to hand additional Cashplus cards to family and friends before travelling, they can also top up the Account remotely back in the UK at over 1,400 Cashplus stores across the UK, with the money available to spend within 15 minutes.
As well as a prestigious looking gold card in GBP, Cashplus also offer prepaid currency cards. A major advantage of this is that the customer can move money from their Cashplus GBP Account to their Euro or US Dollar denominations – and again, it's a quick and easy operation, wherever the customer has access to the internet.
A further plus is that both currency cards offer great exchange rates and there is no commission to pay. And once the holiday/ordeal is over and the traveller has safely made it home, any currency left on the card can be exchanged back into the Cashplus GBP Account in a matter of a few clicks of a computer mouse.
In an emergency abroad, it's not just running out of funds that can be an issue. It can be all too easy in a natural disaster to get separated from your cards and cash – and misplaced cards can be stolen or fraudulently used by desperate people caught up in the turmoil. But with a Cashplus card, the potential damage is limited to what's in the card's Account.
Thankfully, the money on the card at the time it is lost and stolen would not be gone forever, because the card comes with free fraud protection as standard. In fact, as long as the card has been used in line with the Terms & Conditions, the Cashplus gold card and the money on it can be replaced. In sharp contrast, if cash is lost or stolen, that's usually the end of it.
Finally, with a prepaid card to hand, customers have a way to pay for everything from food and alternative accommodation to a flight back home.
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About Advanced Payment Solutions Ltd (APS)
With almost 600,000 cards issued and over £750,000,000 in payment turnover, APS is one of the world’s most innovative payment solutions companies and the most awarded prepaid card provider in Europe. The company’s flagship product, the award-winning Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard, is the UK’s first and best known general purpose prepaid card for consumers.
Small-to-medium sized businesses (SME) and government bodies alike are also now enjoying the benefits of APS’ flexible payment solutions, with nearly 3,000 companies and a range of local councils now using Cashplus cards to streamline their payments, manage expenses and take control of their day-to-day banking.