Traveller cheque card?

[Verity Chambers]

Can anyone tell me about them? Is it worth getting one, or should we just stick to the good old fashioned travellers cheques?

T I A.

 

[kristieuk]

I'm pretty sure that over the next few years, traveller's cheques are being discontinued.

We have a card that we've used without difficulty and find it much more convenient that tc's and safer than cash. If you lose the card or have it stolen, they either replace it within 24 hours, or you can opt to have a credit card credited with the lost amount, so it's very convenient.

We take cash as well, but the card is accepted anywhere that takes Amex so almost anywhere.

The only downside is that unless you want to keep checking online or calling Amex, you need to keep a log of what you've spent so you know how much is left on the card.

I'm sure there will be a lot of different views on this, but we really like the card and I would recommend it over tc's any time.

 

[mandymouse]

Verity, we had a couple of these cards for our last trip and they worked great for us (though I know not a lot of people like them). We would only use them at the ATM's to get 3 or 4 days worth of money out. The big downside of this is that you would get charged twice for using it, I think it was $2.50 for the withdrawal and $2 for using the ATM (or something like that). When we opened the cards we were given extra dollars free, so the extra more than covered the ATM charges. I think we will use the cards again, we will probably just reload on-line. We found them useful, because they could just fit in your purse and it saved having to go to Guest Services everyday to exchange the travellers cheques.

HTH

Mandy

 

[alisonbestford]

We bought a $2000 card, just after Xmas, that had a 'free' $250

Used it everywhere except at the mini golf when we went to the beach

My original intention was to draw cash from an ATM a couple of times during our stay but I ended up just using it mainly as a debit card.
I kept a pretty good running balance in my diary and checked online too

 

[Miffy2003]

I must admit I like the paper TCs which means we can see exactly how much we have spent at any time. I'm not sure I would keep track of the card quite as well

I never exchange the TCs into dollars so it's no hassle. We just buy something with the TC and get the change in dollars

I hope they don't discontinue the TCs If I want to use a card I have my debit or credit card for that.

 

[alisonbestford]

You'd probably get a better rate if you used your cc and were determined to pay it off when you returned home

I rounded up every travellers cheque card transaction to the nearest dollar and ended up $11 in credit at the end of our holiday

Then again, I'm used to being in charge of careful budgeting at home so jotting down everything, as we went along, was second nature