Cashing Travellers checks in USA

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:43:32 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:


Hi


One major problem with using credit cards abroad (at least cards
issued here in the UK) is that, to prevent fraud, you have to inform
the card issuer beforehand of the countries you intend visiting;
otherwise they are quite likely to block the card when you try to use
it.

However - and this is what I was told by the card company themselves -
there is no guarantee that your card will NOT be blocked when you try
to use it, even if you have informed them. They argue that if this
does happen then a simple phone call will sort the problem out. The
snag here is that if your card is blocked when trying to pay a hotel
bill for example, it could be the middle of the night in the UK and
the card company is closed or it may be difficult to get somebody to
answer, ("beep. You are number 15 in the queue") and if you are in a
hurry - on the way to the airport for example - you may have a long
delay, possibly resulting in a missed flight; plus of course the
people queuing behind you, also trying to check out of the hotel, will
not be too pleased at waiting whilst you sort the problem out.


Although what you say may be true, let me add the following:

1. I always notify my credit card companies before I go on a trip to
another country. It takes just a few minutes and is no big deal.
So do I but even the companies themselves say there is no guarantee
the card will not be blocked. It often takes a lot longer than "a few
minutes" by the time you have moved from 15th in the queue to first,
listened to the endless choice of options of buttons to press (none of
which are ever relevant), been told your credit limit, how much you
owe by a recorded voice and finally spoken to a human being to be met
with a barrage of security questions - then repeated the procedure for
all the other cards.

2. I've done this *many* times, and I have never had a problem with a
card that I've notified them about being blocked.
As I say, I have had my card blocked once - and my wife once also.

3. I carry several different credit cards, and worst case, I could
always use a different one.
So do I - but it is a nuisance on a long trip if one card is blocked
and it is the card I particularly want to use because of credit limit
or statement date, etc.


So I see this as an exceptionally minor problem, and not at all the
"major problem" you call it.
I don't know where you live or what papers you read, but the travel
sections of the National Press here in the UK have been full of
complaints about the problem for months.

Regards


KGB

"Qanset" wrote in message
...
JamesStep wrote:
Do banks, Hotels, Restaurants etc, charge a fee for cashing US
Travellers cheques.???

I don't think stores ever charged me a fee when I used cheques to pay
for purchases years ago; they treated them like cash. I never tried
just cashing them in a bank so I don't know if they charge a fee.

But they are rarely used anymore due to the popularity of credit
cards. Last time I used traveler's cheques (maybe 10 years ago) I
found that many clerks had never seen them before.

Thats surprising. all Major banks sell them.

James


Even in the days when TCs were "the" way to carry money they were by no
means universally accepted. Even in the US I can remember having to go to
specific banks to get USD denominated cheques changed. Major banks may
well still sell them but acceptability has fallen significantly.

"Ken Blake" schrieb

1. I always notify my credit card companies before I go on a trip to
another country. It takes just a few minutes and is no big deal.

It never ocurred to me to do that, and since none of my cards
has ever been blocked I won't do so in the future either.

I do get an occasional phone call though "...we've got a payment
here for xyz... is that ok?", but that is for both "domestic" and
"abroad" stuff. To avoid that I probably would have to phone
them before I travel - and before I don't ;-)

Jochen from Germany

Travelers checks are getting harder to cash in some areas. You may have
to go to a bank to get them cashed.


--
Dymphna
Message origin: www.TRAVEL.com

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:00:47 GMT, KGB wrote:
However - and this is what I was told by the card company themselves -
there is no guarantee that your card will NOT be blocked when you try
to use it, even if you have informed them. They argue that if this
does happen then a simple phone call will sort the problem out. The
snag here is that if your card is blocked when trying to pay a hotel
bill for example, it could be the middle of the night in the UK and
the card company is closed or it may be difficult to get somebody to
answer, ("beep. You are number 15 in the queue") and if you are in a
hurry - on the way to the airport for example - you may have a long
delay, possibly resulting in a missed flight; plus of course the
people queuing behind you, also trying to check out of the hotel, will
not be too pleased at waiting whilst you sort the problem out.

Have you ever heard of this actually happening?

Normally an auth is done on the card during checkin. It confirms the
card is ok to use in that country and that the funds checked are available.

On 9/28/09 2:36 AM, in article
, "Qanset"
wrote:

Shawn Hirn wrote:
In article ,
Qanset wrote:

Do banks, Hotels, Restaurants etc, charge a fee for cashing US
Travellers cheques.???

I doubt it, but why bother with traveler's checks? They are so obsolete.
Just use credit cards or your ATM card to get cash from a machine.

For me they are safest form of currency in the event of loss/theft.
Can be replaced almost the same day. I doubt if you could replace
a credit the same day that was issued in another country.
However I take credit cards and some cash as a backup.
If you say they are obselete, then why do major banks still sell them??

Good question. My bank says, "Why would you want them?" They just keep them
for sale for those that demand them. Furthermore, depending on where you
are, it can take much longer than one day to replace them. A friend of mine
lost his Amex checks several years ago. Amex replaced them immediately as
their commercials said. But, and it's a big but, he had to pay for them and
they said they would refund the money in a year if the lost ones weren't
cashed!

30 years ago Bank of America in SF
--
Martha Canada
..

charged me to cash their own travellers cheques. Can't remember how much.
The annoyance I felt was more principle than cost.

In article ,
wrote:

I am unwilling to get a card from Capital One.

Good decision. Their so called ``no hassle rewards'' are a bad deal.
Fortunately, there are pretty good credit card that don't charge
anything on foreign-currency transactions.

I have never seen a CC
that gave me the wholesale rate

Schwab's Invest First Visa gives you the wholesale exchange rate (they
even eat the 1% that Visa charges on foreign-currency transactions)
and unlimited 2% cashback on all purchases. Not only you get the best
exchange rate, you even earn a decent cashback. This is my preferred
card for foreign travel.

On 9/28/09 11:00 AM, in article , "KGB
(KGB)" wrote:

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:53:06 -0700, SMS
wrote:

wrote:

I use cash from local ATMs for most purchases. I prefer to avoid the
2-5% markup added to credit card transactions.
SNIP

Hi

One major problem with using credit cards abroad (at least cards
issued here in the UK) is that, to prevent fraud, you have to inform
the card issuer beforehand of the countries you intend visiting;
otherwise they are quite likely to block the card when you try to use
it.

However - and this is what I was told by the card company themselves -
there is no guarantee that your card will NOT be blocked when you try
to use it, even if you have informed them. They argue that if this
does happen then a simple phone call will sort the problem out. The
snag here is that if your card is blocked when trying to pay a hotel
bill for example, it could be the middle of the night in the UK and
the card company is closed or it may be difficult to get somebody to
answer, ("beep. You are number 15 in the queue") and if you are in a
hurry - on the way to the airport for example - you may have a long
delay, possibly resulting in a missed flight; plus of course the
people queuing behind you, also trying to check out of the hotel, will
not be too pleased at waiting whilst you sort the problem out.

Having said that, the only problem I personally have ever had was in
the USA, when my credit card was blocked trying to pay a motel bill.
Luckily I had another credit card, which worked OK, so I just used
that one. When I later tried to contact the card issuer to unblock
the card, it was virtually impossible to do so. I couldn't use the
transfer charge International number the card company had given me
because the phone operator wouldn't allow a transfer charge from a
public phone, I couldn't use the card to pay for the call because it
had been blocked - and the public phone wouldn't take cash. The only
solution in such a situation is to use a private phone but if you do
not know anybody in the country, it could be difficult persuading
someone to let you use their phone for an International call (luckily
my brother in law lives in the US and we were on our way to visit
him).

My wife and I are shortly setting off on a Round the World trip and
yes, we are taking credit (and debit) cards to pay for goods and to
use in ATM machines; but in case our cards are blocked we are also
taking plenty of $US dollars with us (we are from the UK, but nowadays
people abroad fall about laughing if you try and pay with British
currency, whereas $US are accepted almost universally!!!). Admittedly
it is not an ideal solution to carry around a large amount of cash,
but we would rather risk it than be left unable to access any money at
all - and any $US left over, we will use next year when we visit the
USA again.

Regards

KGB

Different strokes for different folks. I like the fact that the banks and
credit card companies do that if suspicious. It is so easy to inform your
bank of your general itinerary and advise them when you get home. If your
card is lost or stolen or has your numbers on the card stolen and someone
tries to use it somewhere not on your itinerary, the credit card people will
know. The first a friend of mine knew their info was stolen was when their
bank at home phoned them to find out where to send a replacement card. It's
not difficult to take precautions. Surely, the banks in the UK do that.
--
Martha Canada
..

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:14:07 -0700 (PDT),
(VS) wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

I am unwilling to get a card from Capital One.

Good decision. Their so called ``no hassle rewards'' are a bad deal.


Why do you call it a bad deal? I have one and don't think so.


Fortunately, there are pretty good credit card that don't charge
anything on foreign-currency transactions.

I have never seen a CC
that gave me the wholesale rate

Schwab's Invest First Visa gives you the wholesale exchange rate (they
even eat the 1% that Visa charges on foreign-currency transactions)
and unlimited 2% cashback on all purchases. Not only you get the best
exchange rate, you even earn a decent cashback. This is my preferred
card for foreign travel.


I have that card too and agree that because of their cash back, it's
even better than Capital One's. But that doesn't make Capital One a
bad deal.


--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:46:55 -0500, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:00:47 GMT, KGB wrote:
However - and this is what I was told by the card company themselves -
there is no guarantee that your card will NOT be blocked when you try
to use it, even if you have informed them. They argue that if this
does happen then a simple phone call will sort the problem out. The
snag here is that if your card is blocked when trying to pay a hotel
bill for example, it could be the middle of the night in the UK and
the card company is closed or it may be difficult to get somebody to
answer, ("beep. You are number 15 in the queue") and if you are in a
hurry - on the way to the airport for example - you may have a long
delay, possibly resulting in a missed flight; plus of course the
people queuing behind you, also trying to check out of the hotel, will
not be too pleased at waiting whilst you sort the problem out.

Have you ever heard of this actually happening?

Normally an auth is done on the card during checkin. It confirms the
card is ok to use in that country and that the funds checked are available.

Hi

Yes, from personal experience.

I attempted to use my (British) MBNA credit card to pay a motel bill
in Arizona last year. Although I had previously told MBNA I would be
in the USA at that time, the receptionist at the motel said that the
system would NOT authorise the transaction - he tried several times
without success. To save time, my wife then handed over her MBNA
credit card with the same results - transaction would NOT authorise.

We then asked him if he would use his phone and call MBNA on the
transfer charge number and let me speak to them. He tried but could
not get through to MBNA. We then said, "forget it" and used a
different credit card (a British Barclaycard) with no problems. I
should add that we were in fact the only people checking out and did
NOT have a plane to catch, but if there had been a queue and if we had
been going to the airport, the above incident took quite a long time.
The receptionist was very helpful and did his best to help out but
obviously his hands were tied.

I then went to a public phone in the motel entrance and tried to
contact MBNA myself to get my card unblocked. I couldn't use the
International transfer charge number the card company had given me
because the phone operator wouldn't allow a transfer charge from a
public phone, I couldn't use the card to pay for the call because it
had been blocked - and the public phone wouldn't take cash.

From Arizona we were going to visit my wife's brother in the USA, so
until we arrived at his house we used different credit cards and
sorted the problem out with MBNA from his (private) phone. They
unblocked the card but weren't really interested in the inconvenience
it had caused.

The reason I wanted to use my MBNA card was for convenience - it had
the highest credit limit, we were going to be away from home for a
full month and it was just past the statement date, giving me the
maximum time to pay the bill when I arrived home.

To be fair, that is the only time either me or my wife have ever had a
problem but, given the publicity that problems with overseas credit
card transactions are receiving here in the UK at present and the fact
we are shortly going on a long trip, we are very wary of potential
financial card disasters.

Regards





KGB