cash, credit, or traveler's checks in Coz

[alcina]

Also, make sure you let your bank know you are traveling overseas. I had a problem once where they cut off my card because they thought it was fraud. I've called everytime since and have never had a problem.

Lisa

That's a good tip if you are travelling through Singapore/Asia too. Last year DH had a stopover in Singapore and the cc company refused all charges he tried to make at the hotel, stores and atms. He rang me, I rang them, they told me he had to ring in person, he did...it was a bit of a kafuffle but it worked out in the end.

 

[HammerNoMore]

We were there end August/beginning September 2004 and had no problems anywhere with traveller's cheques. All the restaurants, the dive shops, the little shops, the hotel, the supermarket - no one blinked an eye to accept payment or to cash them into pesos for us. And my signature varies wildly from day to day

Don't know what to tell you. I had serious problems when I tried in March, though more problems in Cancun than Coz. One place made me sign the thing 5 times before refusing to accept it.

James

 

[ggunn]

Don't know what to tell you. I had serious problems when I tried in March, though more problems in Cancun than Coz. One place made me sign the thing 5 times before refusing to accept it.

James

And I don't know what to tell you, either... ;^)

In my experience and that of many others traveling with me, your experience is not typical. I have been going to Cozumel on traveler's cheques since 1978, and never once has anything remotely like that ever happened to me, and there is a lot of variability in my (unreadable) signature. If it did, though, I would just destroy the unusable cheques and report them lost; AmEx will replace them on location.

 

[Fin59]

I'm headed to Cozumel this saturday for 8 days.

I was wondering what people do for money. One of my dive buddies is afraid to take her credit card for fear that it might get stolen. She is also concerned that not all places will accept it. She plans on taking $300 cash.

I don't feel comfortable having that much cash on me. I'm also a little concerned about leaving it either in my room, or in my dive bag on the boat when I'm diving.

I'm not too worried about my credit card being stolen and last time I checked, my CC company protects me if my card is stolen and I'm only liable for the the first $50.

I was also thinking that traveler's checks might be an option.

Any thoughts?

We take some cash, but mostly traveler's checks and then have our credit or debit cards for back-up if we need it. Since the hotel we stay at is an all-inclusive, we don't have to take as much with us, but we don't dive with the on site operator, so we do have to pay them but they will take traveler's checks. Also, we have never been anywhere on the island that doesn't take traveler's checks so far. We even used them at Dairy Queen when it was there We have used credit cards a couple of times at restaurants and not been charged extra. I am sure you could ask in advance and they would tell you. One thing though....usually we would change whatever pesos we had left when we got to the airport. We were there in July and they no longer had the money exchange in the airport so we had to bring them home. I don't know if there is one there now or not. That's ok, though.....we are going back next week and will spend them then