How Do Traveller Cheques Work?

synchro

well how do they?

beller b

Not sure what you want to know..Basically you have paid the bank for the cheques (plus commission of course) When you cash the cheque the retailer forwards the cheque for payment the money comes from the banks or the travellers cheque compay's accounts....Simple

BrianD

Same way as dank drafts or cheques. The issuer is essentially a bank and the cheques make their way back there.

netwhizkid

Travellers cheques are just another way of getting ripped off, avoid them, you get charged to buy them and by the retailer you pay with them, Just carry cash when travelling and have adequate travel insurance. Plus an increasing amount of retailers etc are refusing to accept them anymore. They are basically dead, especially with the advent of Credit Cards/Chip PIN security and of course the Euro.

Capt'n Midnight

netwhizkid wrote:

Travellers cheques are just another way of getting ripped off, avoid them, you get charged to buy them and by the retailer you pay with them,

in the EU credit cards beat them in every way.
outside the EU I don't know but if you are outside the EU you might as well get American Express, because people have heard of them, and because my brother had a bad experiance with lost AIB Travellers cheques, luckily enough he found them because AIB were not going to pay out ( I don't know the specifics but it was around the time AIB didn't honour a forged bank draft on genuine paper for Dawntrader & the Bouncy castle and they tried to welch out of covering a lost draft that a couple were to pay for their house with - American Express can't be worse)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

BrianD

In fairness, travellers cheques have been a useful means of carrying money in the past. I wouldn't call them a rip-off but you did have to shop around to find the best places to change. Obviously 'plastic' has overtaken the travellers cheque and they are becoming a thing of the past.

Wertz

A lot of places in the US will charge a cashier fee for changing TCs (banks don't though) but that's the price you pay for the security. It's the same as cashing any cheque...same applies here.
To say that's a rip-off is short sighted and foolish....loose their equivalent value in hard cash and then see how much of a rip off it is. I only ever use Amex TCs and back-up from Amex CC.

RainyDay

There is a security feature on TC's that it worth mentioning. When you buy the TC's, you sign each one. You then have to countersign each one when you cash them. If the TC is lost or stolen without being countersigned, the seller will replace them for you. They have pretty good processes in place for getting replacement TCs to you anywhere in the world.