Hello,
Does anybody know if travellers checks are accepted. I've been hearing stories that fewer and fewer banks are accepting them. Instead, credit cards and debit card are being more widely used. I was in Thailand and never had any trouble cashing my checks. That was in 2005. Has this form of currency changed this much since 2005? Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Andrew
Travellers cheques are antiqued in the parts of Europe I know. In many countries, because of fraud volume, you will have difficulty or refusal, certainly in retail outlets.
They are still accepted in some places and difficult to exchange in others....time-consuming at best.
Where are you going?
Personally I haven't used them for 8-9 years...a combination of debit cards,a credit card and some US$ cash does me everywhere (amount of cash varies on which destination).
Yeah, what you've been hearing is correct. You can still use them in some places, in other places you can only use them in selected banks and in other places you can't use them anywhere. They're more hassle than they're worth, a debit/credit card will do nicely in the vast majority of places and where not just have some cash at hand. I think the last time I used TCs was probably coming up to a decade ago or thereabouts.
Last time I used TCs was more like 3 decades ago Toad. Cards have been around a long time now.
Depends where you were travelling..plenty of countries still didn't have international ATMs 10 years ago.
Most of the world in fact...or at least,only in the very large cities in many parts of Africa,Asia ,South America etc.
Now there are international ATMs in nearly all countries.
True lucapal although places where you don't find ATMs are also likely to be places where TCs can't be cashed either.
It is true it seems more places prefer not to take AMX Checks. But they are a good safety measure. It may be a good idea to have some as a backup.
Credit cards are definitely the more popular route these days. The big question is...where will you be going? If you are traveling somewhere like western Europe, you probably won't have issues bringing TCs, but at the same time, you also would not have an issue finding ATMs, or places that take CCs. In other parts of the world it can be a different story. For me personally, I take a mix of CCs - Visa, Mastercard, Amex and then some cash. Also, you generally get the best rates with cash and okay rates with debit/credit cards. With a lot of cards out there though, you can get it where they don't charge a foreign transaction fee and some of them even eat the 1% visa/MC foreign transaction fee.
Hope that helps!