Crown Currency Exchange goes into administration
By Darren Cronian on Monday, October 4th, 2010

Just hearing that currency exchange company, Crown Currency Exchange have gone into administration, and according to the website, 13,000 customers are affected. I am just looking into how this affects travel consumers who have ordered currency.

Crown Currency Exchange goes into administration

The company provided an online service where customers could exchange, £300 to £1000 into foreign currency. They delivered the money to the customers address. You will receive your money back if you have paid for the currency on your credit card then under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

I will clarify this but I suspect if payment was on a debit card then you will not get the money back. I am not aware of any insurance policies that would affect this scenario neither, but I will get someone to clarify these points.

This is the response that I received from the administrators.

Crown Currency Exchange customers should email crowncurrencyexchange[at]mcr.uk.com or visit the MCR site where you will find the proof of debt form. This form must be completed and posted to the administrator who will then investigate the claim.

Please leave any questions you may have.


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13 responses to “Crown Currency Exchange goes into administration”

R Barraclough | 5 October, 2010 at 9:29 am

Hi Darren,

I’m one of the customers let down by Crown Currency.

Crown Currency requested payments for currency by either Bank Transfer or Cheque and therefore customers become unsecured creditors and must submit a Proof of Debt to the administrator.

Customer should visit http://www.mcr.uk.com where they will find information about Crown and the required form.

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Nick | 5 October, 2010 at 9:33 am

Darren

Crown offered better exchange rates (a lot better) than anyone else. When I first looked at this my question was how? It is not possible every other business in the country could not match them unless something is wrong. Old adage if it looks to good to be true, it more than likely is.

The bad thing is Crown allowed you to order (and pay) months before you get your money. So I have seen comments from people who ordered £2000 or £3000 for delivery in November but paid July or even as far back as April for the currency.

No where else to you pay so much money unprotected for such duration of time and left it self open to just this problem. Basically they been loosing money for a while and using this advanced pay system it seems to keep going. And as it would seem too many transactions lost money so the folded.

My advice is always make sure you get your goods or your money is protected.

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norman | 5 October, 2010 at 10:17 am

Surely the financial regulators cannot allow Crown currency clients to lose out! Surely there must be some sort of action against the Crown Management that can be collectively taken by the clients!

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Darren Cronian | 5 October, 2010 at 12:52 pm

Hi Norman

Thanks for the comment.

I am unsure how the Financial regulations work, but could you tell me:

1) How you paid for the currency
2) When you paid it
3) When was the delivery date of your money?

This might help me dig a bit more about the issue here.

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Darren Cronian | 5 October, 2010 at 12:54 pm

Hi Nick

Interesting, very interesting.

I am a little baffled why a company with this type of business model can collapse and go into administration. Thanks for the advice too.

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Darren Cronian | 5 October, 2010 at 12:57 pm

That is very interesting. So, you couldn’t pay by debit or credit card? I find that strange and raises a few alarm bells for me. It means that non of the customers will be financially protected, and whose to say that they will receive the money back from the administrators.

Thanks for the comment and advice.

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Dipti | 5 October, 2010 at 2:27 pm

Hi I also ordered currency from crown currency exchange that was due to be delivered by Wednesday 6th october, i guess Im not getting that !!!

I just dont understand how they were allowed to carry on trading knowing that they must have been in trouble up to 6 months ago. Shouldnt the FSA done something about it then???

I have ordered from this company for the past 5 years and have never had a problem. Can the FSA and bank not do anything about the money they owe people like me? Surely the FSA and Bank should have reacted earlier, arent they partly at fault here????

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Darren Cronian | 6 October, 2010 at 12:17 am

Hi Dipiti

How did you pay for your currency? Was it as some are suggesting by bank transfer or a cheque? I hope not, and I am baffled why they would accept those methods when consumers are financially protected with a credit or VISA debit card.

Thanks for your comment.

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benny | 6 October, 2010 at 5:52 pm

I have an order placed with them for £2000. I’ve just spoken to the administrators and they advised to fill out a proof of debt and hope for the best! I’ll email and post the form to them and pray that they find the money somewhere to refund me and all of the 1300 customers.

MTR hinted that it wasnt likely that I will receive any of my monies but I wont know for months until the investigators have done their work. I have been using this company for years and they’ve always delivered on time, i only ordered the money last week.
how could they allow this to happen??

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Darren Cronian | 7 October, 2010 at 5:35 am

Thanks for leaving a comment Benny.

I think the figure was 13,000 or was the media reports incorrect? That aside, I would love to know from you (or anyone else) how they paid for their currency, were you able to pay by credit card?

I find it bewildering why a business model such as this would get into so much problems that they go into administration. I think there’s more questions than answers on this right now.

Please keep us up to date with developments.

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linda copson | 7 October, 2010 at 11:55 pm

Hi darren i too have lost £1000 pounds to crown currency and paid by cheque why were barclays honouring our cheques when they obviously knew crown currency were in trouble.

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Val Ealy | 11 October, 2010 at 6:59 pm

I ordered £2000 of EU on the 23 Sep for delivery on the 12 November 2010. As the website advised I sent a cheque for this amount. My cheque was cleared on Wednesday the 29 Sep. Has anyone any idea when Barclays actually froze Crown’s Bank Accounts.

Surely, even though the funds were cleared on the 29 Barclays must have known then that the company were in trouble.

I have used this method of currency exchange for a few years now, and not had any trouble, but this is the last time, especially as we are pensioners and like everyone else can ill afford to lose this amount.

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David Cochrane | 12 October, 2010 at 11:33 am

Hi Folks,

Here is my take on the business….they effectively tried to do what the banks do and try and make money on all deposits received (your early payments)….if successful, this would (in Crown Currencies eyes) make up any shortfall of selling currency at a rate which is even even better than the interbank market rates.

(part of this comment was removed due to break of moderation rules)

Regards…

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