Cashing Travellers checks in USA

On Sep 28, 2:03*pm, MI wrote:
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!

In 2008, AmEx replaced my lost TCs without holding any of my money
hostage. Maybe I just look more honest. They also made a replacement
credit card on the spot. Other than getting myself to the Amex
office, it was hassle-free.

In article ,
Ken Blake 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.

Capital One preys on uneducated consumers who don't understand how
frequent flyer programs work and think that getting an equivalent of 1%
cashback in free tickets to Orlando is good value.

Compare these ``No Hassle'' rewards with, say, Starwood's Preferred
Guest program. Suppose you charge around $40K a year on the Starwood
American Express card. If you wait until BA runs their double transfer
bonus or half-off reward promotion, this will give you 100K Executive
Club points on BA - enough for a business-class roundtrip between San
Francisco and London.

How much would one need to charge on the ``No Hassle'' card to get a
free transatlantic roundtrip in business class?

Another example: you already have 70K in your frequent flyer program and
need another 30K for two free economy tickets to Europe. With a real
frequent-flier credit card, this is simple. How would you combine
the ``No Hassle'' rewards with the miles you already accumulated
from flying?

No matter what your travel patterns are, either a card that gives you
unlimited 2% cashback or a real frequent-flyer card that gives you
miles in an actual airline or hotel program are a much better deal
than the Capital One scam.

Jochen Kriegerowski wrote:
"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 ;-)


I have only had one call from a credit card company about a spending
spree on my card. I rarely use my credit cards. Other than a few things
like my IPS and satellite paid by credit card, I usually only have two
or three monthly purchases made on the card. They must keep track of
usage patterns because a few years ago I went out to do some Christmas
shopping and used it a half dozen times within two hours. That sudden
spree must have put up a flag because they called to see if it was me
who was using it.

VS wrote:

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.

That sounds like a great card. I had a 2% back card similar to that from
Countrywide, where they deposited the 2% into a Countrywide account.
Unfortunately, they could not continue with such a good deal, and the
card was discontinued. Hopefully Schwab will continue with this card.

SNIP
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

Hi Martha

Yes they do, and by coincidence a credit card company phoned me at
home just last week to check whether or not a couple of transactions
made by telephone on my card in the space of a few minutes were
genuine. They weren't so the company just said, "No problem. Destroy
the card and we'll send you another one with a different number. The
fraudulent transactions will not appear on your bill." The new card
arrived a couple of days later.

However, the annoying thing with card companies is when you give them
the relevant information about a forthcoming foreign trip and still
have problems with the card being blocked.

The problem, as explained to me by one credit card Company, is that
the system is computerised and there is no provision for your travel
information to be entered into the computer. The computer looks for
unusual transactions on your card and if it thinks it has found one it
automatically blocks the card and only then alerts a human operator,
who checks your records and finds you really are visiting that
particular country. It is only at this point that the card can be
unblocked upon verification by yourself that the transaction is
genuine. The employee who explained this agreed that, in reality, it
is actually rather pointless to tell them you are going abroad - it
makes no real difference as to whether your card will be blocked or
not.

It is a stupid inefficient system but until the card companies get
their act together and install a better one, customers (at least here
in the UK) are stuck with it.


Regards






KGB

In message Qanset
was claimed to have 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.

This depends on your bank, many banks can overnight a replacement card
anywhere that UPS can deliver an overnight package, and nearly all banks
can arrange an emergency wire transfer that you can pickup within
minutes at the nearest bank.

In other words, you're generally not up the proverbial creek if you lose
your credit card, although there will be some hassle involved.

However I take credit cards and some cash as a backup.

At one point I used to take traveler's cheques with me as a backup since
they could be safely left in luggage, but these days I just got a
backup/emergency credit card that I can carry separate from my main
card.

In my experience, most hotels will cash travelers cheques, as will most
banks, but outside of that it's hit and miss.

If you say they are obselete, then why do major banks still sell them??

They've got a huge profit margin, every travelers' cheque you buy is
like an interest-free loan to the bank.

On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:48:44 -0700, DevilsPGD
wrote:

In message Qanset
was claimed to have wrote:
If you say they are obselete, then why do major banks still sell them??

They've got a huge profit margin, every travelers' cheque you buy is
like an interest-free loan to the bank.

It's called the "float" and it is the huge amount of money equal
to all the uncashed travelers checks. The TC issuer can use the
float to invest as it sees fit.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

MI wrote:

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!


I lucked out with travellers cheques once, thanks to a rude and
obnoxious waiter. We were vacationing in Vancouver back in the 80s,
before the days of bank cards, and had taken American Express TCs. We
had a nice dinner in a seafood restaurant and the bill came to something
over $60. I gave the waiter a $100 American Express TC and he brought
back more than $60 change. I immediately realized that he had probably
assumed that since they were American Express they were in American
funds and had given me exchange. I told him that he had made a mistake.
He assured me that he had checked hi figures carefully. I tried two more
times to let him know that he had given me too much change , but he got
ruder and ruder about it. Pity. He screwed himself put of about $20.

In message Dave Smith
was claimed to have wrote:

I lucked out with travellers cheques once, thanks to a rude and
obnoxious waiter. We were vacationing in Vancouver back in the 80s,
before the days of bank cards, and had taken American Express TCs. We
had a nice dinner in a seafood restaurant and the bill came to something
over $60. I gave the waiter a $100 American Express TC and he brought
back more than $60 change. I immediately realized that he had probably
assumed that since they were American Express they were in American
funds and had given me exchange. I told him that he had made a mistake.
He assured me that he had checked hi figures carefully. I tried two more
times to let him know that he had given me too much change , but he got
ruder and ruder about it. Pity. He screwed himself put of about $20.

Maybe he was trying to turn the tables and give you a tip?

DevilsPGD wrote:
In message Dave Smith
was claimed to have wrote:

I lucked out with travellers cheques once, thanks to a rude and
obnoxious waiter. We were vacationing in Vancouver back in the 80s,
before the days of bank cards, and had taken American Express TCs. We
had a nice dinner in a seafood restaurant and the bill came to something
over $60. I gave the waiter a $100 American Express TC and he brought
back more than $60 change. I immediately realized that he had probably
assumed that since they were American Express they were in American
funds and had given me exchange. I told him that he had made a mistake.
He assured me that he had checked hi figures carefully. I tried two more
times to let him know that he had given me too much change , but he got
ruder and ruder about it. Pity. He screwed himself put of about $20.

Maybe he was trying to turn the tables and give you a tip?

I suppose that is a possibility, except that we was so rude about it.
The first time I told him he said that he had checked his figures
carefully. The second time he said that he had said that he checked his
figures carefully. The third time he cut me off before I could explain.
If he had not been so rude I probably would have left the extra money
anyway. I would never intentionally stiff a waiter, and tried to tell
him nicely. Maybe later on when he found himself out that extra money he
might have clued in that he had screwed up.... with his calculation and
his attitude.