Cashing Travellers checks in USA

Hatunen wrote:
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.

Same with gift cards. The stores love them because an amazingly large
number of them are never used, either because they are lost of simply
forgotten about. At least in California the stores are not allowed to
charge maintenance fees on unused gift cards. What do you do with a gift
card from a store that you never shop at? You could always re-gift it I
suppose.

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

I haven't used travellers checks for several years. I was quite glad to
get rid of the last one.
The problem is to decide what denomination you want to use, and why
you think you need T/Cs. If it is to use in restaurants like cash, then
you want small denominations. If it is security as a backup for having a
large amount of cash in an emergency, then carrying lots of small
denomination checks is a hassle, and large denomination checks are
useless unless you cash them at a bank.

From what I remember I could use small denominations at face value in
restaurants, but the American Express office at SFO airport wanted a
staggering sum of money in charges when I tried to cash them in.

SMS wrote:
wrote:
On Sep 27, 12:04 am, Qanset wrote:
Do banks, Hotels, Restaurants etc, charge a fee for cashing US
Travellers cheques.???
In 2008, I was able to use a US$100 traveler's checque from American
Express at one of the food court restaurants in the Seattle-Tacoma
airport. They did not charge me a fee.

In 1993 I was in Moscow and no stores or restaurants would take
traveler's checks. Those people that brought them had to go to a bank to
cash them. I had brought some, but had also brought enough cash and I
spent very little while there because it was an organized bicycle trip
with all meals and accommodations provided. They would only take cash
that was in very good condition with no tears in the bills.

You were on a cycling tour in Moscow? And you survived? Wow.

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.

What has happened to me while travelling around a lot is that I hit the
credit limit even although the actual transactions were less than the
limit. This was in Moscow, and phoning the card company was not simple.

The way this can happen is as follows. Suppose you fly to city X and
rent a car. You only need the car two days, but to cover the possibility
that you might wreck the car or keep it for a week, the rental company
authorizes for a whole lot more than two days rental.
Then you check into your hotel for one night. The hotel authorizes
your card, but because they don't know if you might suddenly decide to
stay the week instead of one night, they get authorization for the whole
week.
The next day you drive to city Y and check in for one night, etc.. etc..
the authorizations add up, but do not get cancelled immediately you
settle, instead it can take days for your credit limit to return to
reality. At the time this happened to me, they told me it takes a week
for the unused authorizations to be cancelled.

T.

Tom P wrote:

I haven't used travellers checks for several years. I was quite glad to
get rid of the last one.
The problem is to decide what denomination you want to use, and why you
think you need T/Cs. If it is to use in restaurants like cash, then you
want small denominations. If it is security as a backup for having a
large amount of cash in an emergency, then carrying lots of small
denomination checks is a hassle, and large denomination checks are
useless unless you cash them at a bank.

From what I remember I could use small denominations at face value in
restaurants, but the American Express office at SFO airport wanted a
staggering sum of money in charges when I tried to cash them in.

I used them on a trip to Europe in 1993. Since we were planning to go to
France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy we bought TCs in each of the
local currencies. Italy was the only place where we had problems. First
of all, we had trouble getting people to take them there, so we had to
go to an exchange office and they charged for each cheque. While 10,000
lira sounded like a lot, at the time it was equal to about only $10, and
most of the cheques were for 10K, 20K and 50K. We lost a significant
amount of money just cashing them in. Since we had TCs left over in DM
and swiss francs and needed more Lira we had to pay to cash them and got
stung on exchange. Travellers cheques turned out to be a very expensive
proposition. On subsequent trips to Europe I used my bank debit card.

Tom P wrote:

You were on a cycling tour in Moscow? And you survived? Wow.

We rode from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, on tandems, with blind cyclists
as stokers. It was good ride. We had police escorts in the bigger
cities. Less hassle from drivers than we get in the U.S. too.

The bigger problem was food. We'd go to a restaurant with 40 people that
just rode 80 miles, and do like the sign in U.S. buffet restaurants said
to do... "please consume all food in restaurant." Back in 1993, with the
recent end of communism, restaurant eating was still not all that common
and restaurants were not prepared for 40 very hungry people all at once.

The organizer of the ride, Bicycle Built for One World, had been trying
to do a ride in Russia in the communist years but never could get
permission. So after the fall of communism they did the ride. The slogan
of the organization was "Promoting World Peace through Tandem
Bicycling," (sounds like some liberal do-gooder commie group). At least
in Russia the blind cyclists could use their other senses to get a feel
for the country. We were on TV and in the newspaper. In some cities
local cycling clubs would join us.

Back then you could not get any bicycle parts for non-utility bicycles
in Russia, Russian cyclists got stuff from Finland. So we brought a lot
of spare parts. For some reason I decided to take a spare set of
quick-release skewers with me, and one tandem arrived "professionally
boxed" without the skewers. The skewers I had were too long but we found
some thick metal nuts on a chain link fence behind the hotel and
appropriated them for use as spacers (the concept of a hardware store
did not exist back then in Russia). Our mechanics main tool was a big
hammer. I left him my Park pedal wrench as a gift.

Graham wrote on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:00:32 +0100:


"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

It's OT of course, but in the days when I used traveller's checks, I
would sometimes buy them denominated in currencies other than dollars.
Mostly, those worked in the countries they were meant for but I did have
trouble with Swiss Franc checks in the largest toy store in Bern.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

James Silverton wrote:
Graham wrote on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:00:32 +0100:


"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

It's OT of course, but in the days when I used traveller's checks, I
would sometimes buy them denominated in currencies other than dollars.
Mostly, those worked in the countries they were meant for but I did have
trouble with Swiss Franc checks in the largest toy store in Bern.

And neither did I when My wife and I toured Europe and The U.K back in
2007. I am really astounded at the negative responses I have received
about using Travellers Cheques. Oh well .... different strokes for
different folks.

Now every one use credit cards,ATM cards etc. rarely people in this era knows about the travelers cheque.

Indyainfo wrote:
Now every one use credit cards,ATM cards etc. rarely people in this era
knows about the travelers cheque.

I remember when travelers checks received a slightly better exchange
rate than cash when exchanging money outside the U.S.. I don't know if
that's still the case. The best way to pay outside the U.S. is in local
currency with a credit card that does not charge any foreign exchange
fees, such as the Schwab Visa card (they even absorb the 1% that Visa
adds on).

The worst way to pay outside the U.S. is using a credit card and
allowing the merchant to use one of those services that charges you in
U.S. dollars (called "dynamic currency conversion"). Not only are you
charged a hefty percentage fee for the "convenience" of the merchant
charging you in U.S. dollars, but now Visa/MC/Amex charge their own 1%
fee not based on the currency used, but the country in which the
purchase was made (it's not clear if the bank adds its own fee as well
when you use dynamic currency conversion). Originally, dynamic currency
conversion bypassed the credit card issuer's conversion fee, then the
credit card issuers started calling it a foreign transaction fee rather
than a foreign conversion fee.