Forget Travelers Checks!

[DandyDon]

Remember when they were just like cash? In recent years, I've had to wait while clerks asked how to take them. Some find them difficult to obtain, as in this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ge...-discussions/280885-travelers-checks-huh.html

I find them difficult to use these days. On my last few trips to Cozumel, Cancun, Holbox, Tulum, Coba, I used actual cash for an agreed discount in some cases, credit card for some, avoided travelers checks as I know that some won't take them and the resorts get charged for depositing them - but I carried some just in case of an emergency. Now I can't even spend them at home...!

I had an American Express $100 travelers check turned down at my home town grocery where they've known me for decades - would cash my personal check for that amount easily, then at J.C.Penny's, and almost at the larger grocery - where the manager said she wouldn't have taken it if she hadn't known me. I suppose it's all a reaction to modern computer printers and counterfeiting.

I have two left. Taking them back to the bank where I got them.

 

[Belmont]

Any Vegas casino cashier will take them.

 

[Belmont]

All joking aside, 25 years ago I had all my money and travelers checks stolen from my hotel room. Next morning I got my money back in 30 minutes at the American Express counter.

Last time I tried to use one in Europe I had to show the hotel clerk how to handle them.

 

[DandyDon]

Any Vegas casino cashier will take them.

I really doubt that.

 

[Belmont]

You might not have ever been to Sin City but I did.

Are you ready to bet?

 

[DandyDon]

You might not have ever been to Sin City but I did.

Are you ready to bet?

Oh, I've been a few times. Boring. Just didn't think they would, but - I guess at the cashier's window they might.

 

[Belmont]

I've been there 16 times, all for conventions, I swear!

After having been there twice I started sightseeing after the meetings. As far as Death Valley and the Grand Canyon and many places in-between. I love the desert.

 

[drdaddy]

Travelers Checks are a thing of the past. Counterfeiting (fancy inkjet printers) has done them in. Traveling with a credit card and a bunch of US cash in a money belt is the way to go.

I am old enough, however, to remember taking $2,000 of Travelers Checks when ever we traveled overseas. Let me see - our trip to Japan with the kids was 15 years ago - took Travelers Checks. Israel, last year, credit card and cash/money belt.

 

[DandyDon]

I've been there 16 times, all for conventions, I swear!

After having been there twice I started sightseeing after the meetings. As far as Death Valley and the Grand Canyon and many places in-between. I love the desert.

Yep, the desert can be fascinating. Haven't done Death Valley yet. Have driven around northern NM and AZ a couple of times visiting ancient ruins, climbing a volcano, going down into a cave with a year round ice floor, viewing giant arches, and more.

Travelers Checks are a thing of the past. Counterfeiting (fancy inkjet printers) has done them in. Traveling with a credit card and a bunch of US cash in a money belt is the way to go.

I am old enough, however, to remember taking $2,000 of Travelers Checks when ever we traveled overseas. Let me see - our trip to Japan with the kids was 15 years ago - took Travelers Checks. Israel, last year, credit card and cash/money belt.

Yeah, like I said - just took them for emergency use lately, but can't even spend them at home now. Cash, Credit Card, ATM....!

 

[Doc Harry]

On my first trip to Cozumel, I took ten $100 American Express traveler's checks. I returned home with ten signed but unused traveler's checks.

The problem was that there were tiny differences in my signatures. If the second signature was not an exact carbon-copy of the first signature, they refused my checks. I signed all ten checks and not one was accepted by anyone.

So then I went to a bank in Cozumel and got a cash advance. When I got home, my credit card statement had about six unauthorized transactions from all over Mexico.

The bank sold my credit card number!

You can't take Traveler's Checks... you can't take credit cards... you can't take cash.... I think I'll stay home and surf Scubaboard.