Legal tender?

[tvguy]

No, neither. That's why I asked you about specific vendors where you have used them? A restaurant chain? A hotel?

What bank wouldn't take a travelers check? My bank does all my financial transactions, including exchanging foreign currency.
I don't thing a restaurant chain or a chain hotel cares, they just want the money. But I know the local gourmet burger place, the owner prefers cash (which is what travelers checks are treated as) over credit because credit card fees cut into his bottom line.
Lady who runs a cheese shop near here paid $7,500 in one month in credit card fees. That's a lot of lost profit for a individually owned business.

 

[tvguy]

Your belief that ATMs in Europe can only take PINs of four digits (despite my pointing out that mine has six and that my bank insisted that I had six digits)

Doing some research today, most travel sites say that some European banks started transitioning to 5 digit PINs in 2020 but a PIN of 4 digits is still a safer bet. So not my belief, but the experience of travelers. https://www.touristbee.com/2007/12/...pe has been moving to,only as your PIN number.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I have two kids who are baristas (different chains--one works for the $Bucks, the other for a regional chain). Both get tips pooled, then distributed. DS16 came home from work today, delighted with his $58 in tips! I'm not sure how they get credit card tips--maybe they show up on their pay stubs? Both kids have direct deposit, I don't think they even glance at the paper stub.

Both kids gets tons of $1 bills, as you might imagine. Bank of Mom cashes them out. Then, I either spend the ones at local businesses (there's a shortage of small bills--here, at least); or I take the stack to the bank. If they think I'm a stripper, I'm flattered!

I've never, ever had either of them get a $2 bill. State quarters, sure, and once a bicentennial half dollar. A couple times, DD19 has gotten rolls of coins (not sure who rolled them, the customer or the store).

 

[TipsyTraveler]

You can carry twice as much tip money in half that space in your wallet with $2 bills. Don't shoot the messenger. This is a travel tip from right here on the DIS.
Why doesn't your establishment allow you to keep your tips? Isn't that illegal? As for the till, I guess you could do what I have seen many establishments do with $20 and larger bills. You don't put them in a slot, you lift up the cash drawer and put it under there.

It was a tip-pool, not at all uncommon. The tips were split among all the bartenders and a percentage paid out to the barbacks at the end of the night. If you were putting money in your pocket during your shift, it was assumed you were stealing it.

Yes, $2 bills did often end up under the drawer along with the $50s, the $100s, the closed check slips, and the overflow signed credit card slips that didn’t fit in the fifth slot once the drawer got so full it wouldn’t close. The $2 bills were just one more thing adding to the clutter in the limited space under drawer. Since management wouldn’t accept those bills we couldn’t offload them during the cash pickups throughout the night, we would have to find time during or after our shift to trade them out with our tips.

You carry all of your cash for tipping in your wallet while traveling? I’ve always made a point to spread money around among different places within my purse/luggage/pockets so it can’t all be stolen or lost at once, in the event something like that should happen. I just replenish my wallet as needed from the other stashes, so I’ve never had an issue with tip money taking up too much space in my wallet.

 

[tvguy]

It was a tip-pool, not at all uncommon. The tips were split among all the bartenders and a percentage paid out to the barbacks at the end of the night. If you were putting money in your pocket during your shift, it was assumed you were stealing it.

Yes, $2 bills did often end up under the drawer along with the $50s, the $100s, the closed check slips, and the overflow signed credit card slips that didn’t fit in the fifth slot once the drawer got so full it wouldn’t close. The $2 bills were just one more thing adding to the clutter in the limited space under drawer. Since management wouldn’t accept those bills we couldn’t offload them during the cash pickups throughout the night, we would have to find time during or after our shift to trade them out with our tips.

You carry all of your cash for tipping in your wallet while traveling? I’ve always made a point to spread money around among different places within my purse/luggage/pockets so it can’t all be stolen or lost at once, in the event something like that should happen. I just replenish my wallet as needed from the other stashes, so I’ve never had an issue with tip money taking up too much space in my wallet.

I never worked in a tipped position, but I heard folks who did talking about tipping the cooks, bus boy, and bar tenders at the end of the night. I worked with a couple of part time folks who had second jobs in the restaurant industry who always had wads of cash they were counting the next day to see how they did after tipping out their co-workers. Their tips from charge payments they got later in their paycheck and were divided by the employer to the staff on duty. They of course preferred cash tips because they could under report that tip income to the IRS. I guess different shops are set up differently.
No, I don't carry all my cash in my wallet.
Most of my trips I just had $1 bills for tips. Like I said, here on the DIS Cruise Forum is where I first heard of $2 bills for tipping. Just seemed like a good idea.

 

[amcnj]

It was a really long time ago, but when I was a waiter we were supposed to share our tips with the bus boy and the back bartender (one located in the kitchen area who prepared any drinks ordered by your tables).

I remember some really slow times (like a snowy lunchtime) and apologizing as I gave the bus boy the correct percentage of the tips, but say only like $2.50. He was thrilled though as he said that many others gave him nothing since they had so few tips that meal.

As far as older bills, the only issues I recall with them is their being more likely to be rejected by bill acceptors on machines.

 

[fla4fun]

Those bills are dated 2006. You will not have an issue spending them any place that would accept a current $100 bill, so long as it is not an automated machine. The only time a person might have an issue is if they have a bill too old for a counterfeit pen to work, since that is the first method to check the bills. I don’t have a pen handy, but if I remember correctly they work for bills later than either 1957 or 1959 (I know it’s prior to 1960), so there must have been a change to the paper used at that point. Your bills also have the color changing ink on the bottom right, the security stripe, and the watermark. They can be verified as valid numerous ways.

I used to count the cash deposits for our company and the oldest bill I personally saw was a $50 from 1929. That was a surprise. I saw several from 1934 and 1950 as well. That is what I expected to see when I opened this thread, because they really look different. Your bills are nearly new in the grand scheme of things.

I miss counting money. It was fun.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

A brief history of the $2 bill and the reasons why it’s never really taken off in popularity:

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2022/05/whats-deal-2-bill/

 

[kdonnel]

$2 bills and Susan B Anthony $1 coins were plentiful in the early 80’s on the US Army base I lived on in West Germany.

I guess they sent the currency no one wanted in the US.

I have seen a couple articles saying now is the time to kill the $1 bill. With inflation, nothing costs $1 anymore. Kill the $1 bill and replace it with a $1 coin, keep the $2 bill.

 

[bcla]

Steve Wozniak used to buy uncut $2 sheets from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and have a local print shop cut and bind them into tear off pads.

He would pull out the pad when a tip was needed and tear off as many as were needed.

I heard that story before, but I don’t believe he got uncut sheets. That’s just too much work. New bills with Bureau of Engraving and Printing bands are already cut and align perfectly. I believe he just got new, sequentially numbered bills and had a printer make those rubber peel off sheets of bills.

 

[_19disnA]

^^ I agree, sounds more like one of those 'urban legends' that gets passed around. You can still buy uncut sheets of currency from the BEP, but it costs a premium compared to their face value. It wouldn't make much sense to buy a sheet of uncut bills to cut up and spend. Uncut sheets are mostly purchased for their value as a collectable.

More likely someone would get a pack of new bills from their bank and then go to the local office supply store to have them glued into a tear-off format.

Even when they reintroduced $2 bills some number of years ago, the same reasons they weren't popular in the past never changed. Cashiers at stores don't have a slot for them so they become a nuisance to handle. Can't recall the last time I ever saw a $2 given out at a store as change.

 

[bcla]

On second thought, I looked up what Woz did. He bought uncut sheets of 4 and had them perforated such that he could tear off bills.

https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n36a40.html

 

[kdonnel]

I heard that story before, but I don’t believe he got uncut sheets. That’s just too much work. New bills with Bureau of Engraving and Printing bands are already cut and align perfectly. I believe he just got new, sequentially numbered bills and had a printer make those rubber peel off sheets of bills.

Not sure. Some of the stories say that the print shop perforated the bills so they could be torn off leaving a ragged edge. He needed the uncut sheets so there was enough bill left for the perforation.

Edited to add: Should have looked before posting as you found the bit about perforation.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

No, neither. That's why I asked you about specific vendors where you have used them? A restaurant chain? A hotel?

I was really wishing that he would answer your question and list some specific vendors!

What bank wouldn't take a travelers check? My bank does all my financial transactions, including exchanging foreign currency.
I don't thing a restaurant chain or a chain hotel cares, they just want the money. But I know the local gourmet burger place, the owner prefers cash (which is what travelers checks are treated as) over credit because credit card fees cut into his bottom line.
Lady who runs a cheese shop near here paid $7,500 in one month in credit card fees. That's a lot of lost profit for a individually owned business.

Why can't you answer a simple question? If you use Travelers Checks so much like you say, then answer her question. List the hotels, restaurants and stores you use them at!

She's asked you three times and each time you avoid answering her question of simply stating a couple specific places that you have used your Travelers Checks.

 

[SirDuff]

Doing some research today, most travel sites say that some European banks started transitioning to 5 digit PINs in 2020 but a PIN of 4 digits is still a safer bet. So not my belief, but the experience of travelers. https://www.touristbee.com/2007/12/use-your-atm-card-in-europe#:~:text=Europe has been moving to,only as your PIN number.

Lived here since 2016 - always needed a six digit pin.

 

[bcla]

I got way too curious about this and found out the deal with Steve Wozniak. He'd get the 4 note uncut sheets and get them perforated. But some of these he would additionally have bound like rubber edged scratchpads. He said something about them costing $3 per $2 bill, but that must have been a while ago.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120807034035/http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html

This is a still capture of video where he's showing one of these pads. So at least with these, they're perforated and one edge is bound with that rubber stuff. The others he keeps folded.

I don't know if it makes sense any more. What they sell now is $22 for an uncut sheet of 4 $2 bills although it comes with some booklet. The bigger sheets are cheaper per bill and I suppose they could be cut.

https://catalog.usmint.gov/paper-currency/uncut-currency/#prefn1=coinDenomination&prefv1=2dollar

 

[tvguy]

Lived here since 2016 - always needed a six digit pin.

Wonder why the Travel Website articles as recent as this August still say 4 digits and that some banks 2 years ago started accepting 5 digits?

 

[tvguy]

I was really wishing that he would answer your question and list some specific vendors!


Why can't you answer a simple question? If you use Travelers Checks so much like you say, then answer her question. List the hotels, restaurants and stores you use them at!

She's asked you three times and each time you avoid answering her question of simply stating a couple specific places that you have used your Travelers Checks.

I paid for my groceries at Raleys to use up the last of them up in 2019. And the Grand Californian hotel at Disneyland in 2018, not that it matters.

 

[Jangles]

U.K. pins are 4 digits, but many European countries, the Far East and Middle East/North Africa use 6 digit pins. I have found, that ‘foreign’ ATMs requiring 6 digit pins accept my U.K. card and a 4 digit pin and similarly U.K. ATMs will accept the first 4 digits of my European bank card.

 

[SirDuff]

Wonder why the Travel Website articles as recent as this August still say 4 digits and that some banks 2 years ago started accepting 5 digits?

You’d have to ask them why their research is wrong. I mean, simply stating that anything is true for “Europe” already tells me that they don’t know what they are talking about (since countries all have their own rules).