crown currency in administration

[erowlands]

My stepson is off to Florida next Wednesday,he sent for £900 of dollars from Crown just two weeks ago, due to receive his $ today, of course he will not receive anything short term so is totally miffed, for them to take his money just two weeks ago is annoying him the most as the eveidently were in trouble then.
Eric

[steph_goodrum]

Eric
We know of some people who had their money taken the day it was announced they were in trouble.
Strangely enough people who live in Cornwall and had ordered money for delivery even as long as in nine months time had their currency delivered early. The only assumption that can be made from that , I guess , is that the owners didn't want people turning up on their doorstep.

[grayster]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:
[Anyway, in order to lose £20 million this firm must have been speculating with their clients' money in the FX markets with typical 100:1 leverage and probably holding a long USDGBP or USDEUR position in September. That is obviously illegal and it would explain why they would hold on to their clients' money for weeks when a USDGBP or USDEUR transaction even in very large size takes a millisecond to execute. Considering the sudden violent sell-off in the USD courtesy of Bernanke's recent QE2 announcement, these Crown idiots must have been caught out on the wrong side of the trade, and being overleveraged with their clients' money, they must have very quickly blown up their trading accounts. There's absolutely no other way they could have lost £20 million, especially considering this is essentially a risk-free business. This is quite obvious to anyone who understands how the FX markets work,
[/quote]

With regards to the quote above, of course this firm was speculating and their trade/bet blew up in their face. This is why they take people's money month's in advance; there's no interest to be gained at the moment so it can only be they speculate to accumulate. These cowboys are high risk taking badly-hedged positions - once the trade goes wrong they start betting more to try and recoup. Please don't use companies who require the full money down month's in advance, for the small gain you can get in the FX you take a massive risk on the entire capital outlay. If you want to take a bet on the currency move well in advance, buy/sell the currency using forwards - then you only pay some margin (deposit for losses) up front and not the whole lot.

This is indeed really bad news for all those unlucky people who had money with these guys. I do hope, at last, Foreign Exchange will be properly definined as a 'Regulated Activity' by the FSA so FX receives the same safeguards that are given to other financial products. It beggars belief that this can still be allowed to happen. It makes me so angry and I feel so sorry for those caught out.

[SDJ]

One of the other forum members who has started the action group appears on the front page of The Sun online. She is definitely 'going for it' and good luck to her. She has not just sat on her backside and moaned, she is doing something about it and now has all the media and even the Government involved!!

Sandra

[Katys Grandad]

For those affected and anybody just interested, there was an item on BBC Radio 4's Moneybox yesterday and it can be downloaded from iTunes or the BBC website.

I wasn't surprised to hear that the rates they were offering were never going to be sustainable without dipping into the money people had sent them upfront.

Further, them offering occasional 'special' rates because they had some 'cancelled contracts' was nothing more than a con and probably part of their desperate efforts to get money in to keep afloat. There is no evidence whatsoever that they had a single cancelled contract to make these offers with. After all, who would cancel a contract when they had already paid their money?

[ncmurray]

I heard that programme on Radio 4, and my first thought was that there must have been some fraud involved. If I heard correctly, it seems that Crown Currency were offering a better exchange rate than the banks could get for themselves.

The old saying still stands, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. I just feel so desperately sorry for all those poor people that have lost so much money.

I doubt that anybody will get their money back, but hopefully justice will be served.
Nuala

[Shazz34]

If anyone like us has been affected by crown currency exchange the website is now up and running
: http://www.crowncurrencyactiongroup.org

[Robert5988]

It may be of interest that the two directors of Crown Currency were arrested yesterday for questioning. The Administrators have stated that there is a shortfall of around 16 million pounds.

Meanwhile anyone using internet exchange companies for cash/TCs would be well advised to check very carefully on the security of their funds.

As stated many times, I simply cannot understand why people don't use credit/debit cards in Florida.

[SDJ]

Robert, debit/credit cards are not much use if you own a villa in Florida. Owners need to send large amounts of money to update their villas, pay expenses etc., so unfortunately the way you suggest is just not feasible.

Sandra

[Robert5988]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Robert, debit/credit cards are not much use if you own a villa in Florida. Owners need to send large amounts of money to update their villas, pay expenses etc., so unfortunately the way you suggest is just not feasible.[/quote]

I appreciate that and have a US$ account and use cheques to pay my utilities etc.

I am talking about the visitors who get all their spending money in UK either in cash or TCs, when they can easily use a debit card for cash from an ATM and credit card for most purchases.

That said I use plastic for as much as I can and the electricity company and telephone company will accept plastic(sometimes for a small fee)