Last week Tesco announced record annual profits of £3billion, an increase of ten per cent. Not bad going in a recession. Maybe one of the reasons its sales are so high is its aggressive marketing. It doesn't miss a trick when it comes to knocking its rivals.
On its website, on the page about buying travel money, it says: "We won't be beaten on price by M&S, Post Office or Sainsbury's". But is it true?
We checked out how many euros we'd get per pound on Tesco's website. When we compared it to its supermarket rivals - Sainsbury's, Tesco's promise did stand up as its rate was marginally better. But that didn't last long, as we found that M&S was slightly cheaper and things went from bad to worse for Tesco when we checked on the Post Office, who was cheaper still.
At the prices we saw, if we'd bought 500 euros at Tesco, we'd have to pay nearly £2 more than if we'd bought at the Post office. This might be small change, but as it says, "every little helps".
We monitored the euro rate of all these companies over a week and whenever we checked, despite its promise, Tesco was never the cheapest. We even called them up to see if it'd match their rivals' rates, but it refused.
Tesco's response
"This is a genuine mistake and thanks for bringing it to our attention. We have taken the claim down from our website immediately and apologise if we have inadvertently misled any customers. We have checked our processes and are confident that this won't happen again.
"The fact is that we won't be beaten on price by M&S, Post Office or Sainsbury's for euro's and US Dollars from our Travel Money bureaux in-store. We price check High Street prices daily.
Any online customers affected should contact Tesco Travel Money on 0845 600 66 67 and we will refund the difference."
Tesco's travel money
On its website, on the page about buying travel money, it says: "We won't be beaten on price by M&S, Post Office or Sainsbury's". But is it true?
We checked out how many euros we'd get per pound on Tesco's website. When we compared it to its supermarket rivals - Sainsbury's, Tesco's promise did stand up as its rate was marginally better. But that didn't last long, as we found that M&S was slightly cheaper and things went from bad to worse for Tesco when we checked on the Post Office, who was cheaper still.
At the prices we saw, if we'd bought 500 euros at Tesco, we'd have to pay nearly £2 more than if we'd bought at the Post office. This might be small change, but as it says, "every little helps".
We monitored the euro rate of all these companies over a week and whenever we checked, despite its promise, Tesco was never the cheapest. We even called them up to see if it'd match their rivals' rates, but it refused.
Tesco's response
"This is a genuine mistake and thanks for bringing it to our attention. We have taken the claim down from our website immediately and apologise if we have inadvertently misled any customers. We have checked our processes and are confident that this won't happen again.
"The fact is that we won't be beaten on price by M&S, Post Office or Sainsbury's for euro's and US Dollars from our Travel Money bureaux in-store. We price check High Street prices daily.
Any online customers affected should contact Tesco Travel Money on 0845 600 66 67 and we will refund the difference."
Tesco's travel money